Beware of Leopard ⁽²⁵⁶⁾

Brian Bilbrey December 28, 2011

Linux remodel, OpenIndiana build 151a, Node.js, and the DTrace Book

Lots of computing updates going on. It all started last week ... * * * It was the Thursday before Christmas, or Wednesday perhaps, the details blur just a bit. I've not been using the Linux box formerly known as Slartibartfast as a desktop machine for quite a while now. My old MacBook Pro got refurbished with a small-ish SSD drive, and that's the primary desktop system these days. It sits in a custom upright support that I created for the purpose a couple of years ago, and finally put to use Darlion — the OS X Lion -enabled former…

Brian Bilbrey December 20, 2011

Process and Paranormal

Process and Paranormal - it's not a Jane Austen parody, although those are surprisingly popular these days, especially those with zombies baked in. I'm just thoughtful about two different things right at the moment and rather than make progress on anything, I'll stop and discuss things here. * * * Process is much on my mind not just because of my on-again, off-again forays into the land of productivity porn. My in-field class this upcoming Winter session has Pressman's Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach as the text. Software engineering is all about process (as is personal and work productivity). I'm…

Brian Bilbrey December 17, 2011

Plague of Imagination

The problem of having a rich imagination is this: Anything that can go wrong, already has ... in my mind. Imagine driving home from someplace unusual, as I did this afternoon. Imagine using the Nav system built into the car and pressing the "Go Home" button. Once I get out of the area I don't know and I'm on a known path home, I want to make the car stop talking to me. So I press the DEST button on the dash, select "Del Dest" on the screen, and be prompted: "Delete Destination? [YES][NO]" I tap the yes button, then…

Brian Bilbrey December 10, 2011

Orchid in bloom

A few years back ... three, I think, I got Marcia an orchid as part of my anniversary gift to her. It was in bloom at the time, and stayed that way for quite a while. Wonder of wonders, although the flowers eventually faded and the stalks withered away, the plant itself has been pretty hardy. I keep up with the watering, and it sits by a window in the library, so it gets some afternoon light. But it hasn't bloomed since there. Late this summer, I read someplace that orchids need some cooler overnights in order to stimulate flower…

Brian Bilbrey December 5, 2011

Hah!

Remind me not to attempt brain surgery this week. I ended up remounting the Windows drive into the chassis, and booting there for the financial management software. Hard mounted to metal, so it's noisy as hell. But it got the job done, and I was able to boot back into hellboy shortly thereafter. It was opening the chassis to pop in the drive that revealed the missing screwdriver. Hmmm.