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GRAFFITI -- March 28, 2005 thru April 03, 2005

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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.

Ron Paul in 2008

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Read LinuxGazette, get a clue.

MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 28, 2005

0654 - Good morning. Yesterday was devoted to getting nothing done. Precious little more to be said, really. I played HalfLife2 for a few hours, watched a bit of TV and generally behaved like a slacker. Oddly that's more tiring that being active. But who's really surprised by that? Anyway, it's Monday, and likely to stay that way for an extended period of time (on the premise that Mondays are longer than the other four days of the work week together). I'd best get my act together and hit the road. Have a great day!

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Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 29, 2005

0641 - Good morning. The Elantra is back, and barring a couple of minor issues, it looks and drives fantastic. Two downsides are that the dash gauges don't move anymore, and from the final back glass replacement yesterday afternoon, they didn't clean properly. There's also some interesting weather stripping in the back seat that I'm not sure was supposed to be installed or not. More on this later - I'll swing it by the shop this afternoon if I can make time, otherwise I'll take half a day tomorrow and do the same. But I've got a sick server and a busy day in front of me. Have a good 'un.

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Mon    Tues    WEDNESDAY    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 30, 2005

0639 - Good morning. I've continued to be a busy boy, including with the camera:

Weather, sky and trees ...

weather one weather two Spring is coming

Dogs...

Lucy guarding her yard Lucy at parade rest Lucy back in the barracks Molly just wants more cookies

Spring has sprung...

Volunteer flower Volunteer flower First vegetables planted: Brussels Sprouts up front, Broccoli further back

In car news, there was a problem with the right fender liner (replacement ordered), remaining glass bits in the back where the glass company did a crappy job cleaning up after themselves (I vacuumed that up), and none of the needle gauges on the dash worked. I took this by the shop (more info in a moment) and they were totally fuddled by the issue with the dash. They talked to a couple of dealerships, everyone's confused. So I drove away, going pace of traffic to keep from standing out, since I had no speedometer. Once home, I checked with my friend Google about Elantras and funny gauge behaviour. In post after post, they blamed the fuses, which the shop had checked. But oddly, the enthusiast forums said to check ALL the fuses, because sometimes odd things were dependent upon other things working right. So I pulled, checked, and reseated every fuse in the dash. When I started the car ... BAM! Gauges were working. (It's okay, that was a good BAM, like Emeril, right?) The shop that did the work on the car is True2Form, at the Beltsville location. They did great work on the car - fought with the insurance company to do the work right, and it really does look (and drive) like new. I'm very, very pleased and can recommend them highly.


Tonight I'm going to see Brian Greene, the string theorist, talk about the stuff that's in his new book, Multiverse. That should be fun! But for now I've got other work to do, and it starts with an hour's drive. I'd best be on my way.

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Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 31, 2005

0633 - Good morning. It was an interesting event, seeing Brian Greene and Michael Turner talking about Cosmology, Quantum Mechanics, Dark Matter, the Arrow of Time and other such things. That said, could you or anyone you know do just one of those topics justice in an hour? Yeah, me neither. So in a real sense, this hour-long interview format advertises better than it plays. I liked it, but I won't attend an event of that format again for a technical topic. For the Gene Wilder thing, which our friends Lauree and Danny went to see in our stead, we're told it worked very well indeed. Things one learns... like Emacs:

Subject: Thanks U for your article "Living in Emacs"
From: Mao Honhyi

Hi dear Brian,
Thanks U for your article "Living in Emacs".
I'm a Chinese students and I'm using Windows for 6 years.Now I wish to change to Linux.With my friends' help I install Debian GNU/Linux in my old computer (PIII 450MHz RAM 128M HDD 8.4Gb) and wish to be familar with it and final to not use Windows at all. My friend told me that Emacs is a good thing and with it almost can do anything,but he is using Vim and he is so lazy to change.So I turn to Google.Thangks to Google,I got your aritcle and I think I can learn it by myself with your help.
At the websites of IBM,your article has been translate to Chinese and I can read it more easyly,thx!


The "Living in Emacs" article I did for IBM DevWorks continues to be the most popular short-subject work I've done. I get email on it still every other week or two, and it's been three years since I wrote it. The reader feedback is always good to hear (and much nicer when most of it is so positive).

Now to work with me. Have a great day!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
April 1, 2005

0833 - Good morning. I've no April 1 japes to play, no pranks or pratfalls to report (as yet), just another Friday, really. As it's the last day of "Spring Break" for the public schools in the DC Metro area, the traffic was stunningly light this morning, and a very pleasant ride in, in consequence. More than that, there's nothing to report. See you back here later if anything interesting happens today, or tomorrow, otherwise. Ciao!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    SATURDAY    Sun   
April 2, 2005

0954 - Good morning. Marcia's got Molly over at the vet's for nail trimming and ear cleaning, so as a complementary treat, I took Lucy on a walk. While I did, I heard the nearby church bells start ringing. Let me check the news... Nope, the Pope is clinging to life. Must have been something else going down. I've got some small outdoor projects if the rain that pummelled us all night holds off this morning, and tonight we're having supper with the Kittermans. Should be much fun. Hae a great day!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    SUNDAY  
April 3, 2005

1130 - Good morning. The Pope passed on, I see. Apparently history is going to judge him well, but I continue to be stunned at an organization that is incapable of keeping up with the times ... they remain several hundred years behind the curve. While there's some good advice for living in the Bible, I see precious little that needs to be accepted literally, much less taken as "law", given both purposeful additions and mistranslations over the years. Still, a good man has passed.

Did you set your clocks forward? Here in the US, it's Daylight Savings Time, now. So we gave away an hour that we get back without interest in late October. Seems like a ripoff to me. We've been out and gotten all the shopping done. It's still lightly raining off and on, with heavily gusting winds, as the ass-end of this storm blows out of here. We took about 2 inches of rain yesterday, so good riddance, say I. Now I've got some more chores to be about, so I'll bid you adieu for now.

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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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