Saturday at the Zoo

What to do on a Saturday afternoon when the parents and sister are visiting? We went to the zoo.

San Francisco has a nice little zoo. It's not as big as the National Zoo in Washington DC or the San Diego Zoo but... right now, they have baby tigers! This makes it a pretty wonderful zoo. :) ...
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Tweetup

I went to the HMB Tweetup on Tuesday night! @pistachio was in town after BlogHer 08.

I met @pistachio of course! I also met @creativesage, @shelisrael, @scobleizer, @ryankuder, @britneymason, @geekmommy, @maryamie, @stoweboyd, @kathysierra, and so many others! Wow.

What am I talking about??? ...
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Search Magic - Impress and Delight Your Friends

A co-worker IM'd me

"Can TWiki show me all of the pages I've created? I started a Hack Day retrospective and now I can't find it and I don't remember what I called it."

Well, yes, it can... but that's slow and at this time of day, it will fail. Hang on a moment.

clickety click

Is this the page you're looking for?

Coworker: "Wow. Thanks!"

Search magic. My fingers never leave my hands.

Twoosh

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"); text-based posts, up to 140 characters

In January, @jobsworth asked “When you tweet, how does your instinct deal with the 140 limit? Do you find yourself "cutting back", "padding out" or "leaving as is"?”

I don't much care for really short posts, either to write or to read. I want some value for the tweet. Most of the people I follow post a few sentences most of the time, not just a few words. My own tweets have tended toward 100+ characters, give or take, always in complete sentences.

On occasion I've had to cut back when what I wanted to say went over 140, but most of the time, I just typed what I wanted to say and then sent it. Then I discovered tweet140. ...
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From Microhoo to Lunch

In the wake of the Yahoo!-MicroSoft brouhaha, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang wrote there's a reason why we're the only fortune 500 company with an exclamation point at the end of our name, and now is the time to demonstrate what that exclamation point stands for.
To which a friend of mine responded: What about Yum! Brands? (OK, you could say that the ! is in the middle but the logo is Yum!). Yum! owns several fast food favorites, including Pizza Hut, KFC, and Long John Silver's.

Bottled Water Mis-Delivery

We buy five-gallon bottles of (Arrowhead) spring water for drinking and cooking. Today was delivery day. We got the empties collected last night; we had 5 empties. (Last month, they didn't take away the empties because we forgot to put them out and the driver didn't knock or ring the bell.) We already have 6 full bottles in stock so we really don't need a lot of new water.

Rich put a note around the neck of one of the bottles requesting 1 bottle of water. I was up at 7 am and put the empties on the porch by 7:30.

When Rich opened the front door to leave the house to drive to work, there were 5 bottles of water on the porch. One of the new bottles had the original "order form" note carefully transferred to the neck. I looked at it. It was one of the old Calistoga order forms, so the driver could have been confused but... why didn't he ring the bell and ask?

(Why didn't he ring the bell, period? We're getting tired of stealth delivery. We'd much prefer someone else carry those five-gallon bottles of water up the stairs. 1 gallon of water equals 8.33 lbs. 41.6 lbs is heavy.) ...
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TWiki Community Summit and Meetup

On Thursday and Friday, Feb 14/15, I attended the TWiki Community Summit in Sunnyvale, CA. The location and and wireless internet access for the meeting were provided by Yahoo!. The Summit meetings were followed, on Friday night, by an open TWiki User Meetup.

TWiki Community Summits are organized for TWiki Community members, e.g. core developers, extension developers, doc writers, marketeers and supporters of the TWiki ecosystem in general. Building on the success of the first Summit, held in Rome in August 2007, TWiki community members decided to hold a Summit meeting every six months. ...
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Voting Day

It's Voting Day in California. The People in Charge in our precinct certainly went out of their way to make this difficult and frustrating.

First off, they moved the polling place from our usual location. We arrived to find a sign on the door that said "Your Polling Place Has Moved!" There was no indication of where it had moved to. It only said "Check your sample ballot for the new location."

We hadn't brought the sample ballot with us so we went back to the house. ...
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They're A Telephone Company

I set up a web account with AT&T today. It was ... different. As has become standard, they send out a confirmation number. Without that number, you cannot complete registration.

What's weird, though, is they send the confirmation number by telephone. They tell you to expect an automated phone call, "within 10 minutes" . You sit and wait and eventually the phone rings. ...
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Take Your Pleo to Work

My Pleo went with me to Work on Wednesday and Thursday. He met several of my co-workers — including one who is impatiently awaiting his own Pleo's arrival ("First-hatch" Pleos, like the one I have, arrived in their homes first. The next batch should be shipped starting next week.) ...
       Continue reading "Take Your Pleo to Work"

TWiki Meetup

Last night was the first Silicon Valley TWiki User Meetup. TWiki is an open-source , open-development, structured wiki, a web-based collaboration system. I've been using TWiki since mid-2006. I work with it a LOT at the Job.

The Meetup was held at the Plug and Play Tech Center (.com) in Sunnyvale. Nice place, if a bit hard to figure out where to park.

There were 50+ attendees. First there was networking and munchies. I networked with the "TWiki" Birdie, a beautiful female White-Bellied Caique (parrot). She's the twiki.net mascot and "Social Networking Catalyst, as well as a total sweetheart. ...
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Introducing Snibbles - A Tumblelog

I've been building a new weblog, called Snibbles. Snibbles is a tumblelog.

A what??

A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, this format is frequently used to share the author's creations, discoveries, or experiences without providing a commentary.

from Wikipedia.

Jason Kottke described tumblelogs as "really just a way to quickly publish the 'stuff' that you run across every day on the web." ...
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Transit Travails

Sometimes I have to forcibly remind myself why I take the train to my Job. I know it's better for the environment and better for my car. I know it reduces my average levels of stress and frustration. I know that I would have traffic every afternoon if I drove. I know that, many times, the train is convenient, on schedule, and relatively comfortable.

But every so often, about once every month or two, something goes wrong. And when something goes wrong, it's usually a real whopper. ...
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Wide Screen Monitor

We've moved our Mac mini into the living room and connected it to our new Sharp LCD monitor. Wow.

Rich ran an Ethernet cable from the hub (in his office) to the living room. The wire goes down through the floor, across the garage ceiling, and back up through the floor in the living room.

We bought a wireless Apple keyboard and a wireless Kensington mouse (we like Kensington). Now we can sit on the couch and use the computer. The mini itself tucks right under the edge of the screen.. The Electric Sheep are quite awesome. It's all great fun.

New TV

Our new flat-screen high-res LCD TV (DVD monitor) arrived yesterday. We had it shipped. The dealer told us to expect delivery between 11 am and 4 pm.

We went out, briefly, at 9:00 am to run a few errands and get breakfast. We were back at the house by 10:15 and I took the kitties downstairs with me and shut us all in while I worked.

The day passed. 11:00, noon, 2:00 pm, ... 4:00 pm. No truck. No delivery. No TV. ...
       Continue reading "New TV"

Now If They Could Only Handle the Paperwork

It's time for my annual paean to Turbo Tax.

Like many people (not you, of course, surely not you) I put off doing my taxes. I don't wait until the last minute anymore; now I do them sometime between March 15 and April 5. But still, it's not like I'm anxious to get to this annual chore.

For whatever reasons — some books I've read recently suggest the primary reason is "fear" — I procrastinate. I find other, higher priority tasks to do instead. I have to wash my hair... do the laundry... read a book... feed the cats. Something, (anything!) else. ...
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Wi-Fi Hotspot

We have a small, home LAN. We wired our house for Ethernet shortly after we moved in. We've got a cable in most rooms (yes in the bedroom; no in the bathrooms) and two in the living room. ...
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Almost Birch Beer

We recently tried Henry Weinhard Draught-style Root Beer and Oh My, is it Good! Unless you grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch county like I did, you probably won't understand what I'm talking about, but I was pleased and surprised to discover that the taste is reminiscent, (to me, anyway), of Birch Beer!

Enjoy a truly great American Root Beer recipe, originally crafted by our master brewers during prohibition. This gourmet elixir, brewed with sassafras, vanilla and honey, proved to be a popular alternative for our beer-drinking loyalists both during, and after, the "great dry spell." Our tradition of providing only the highest quality beverages continues today in each bottle that bears our founder's name, Brewmaster Henry Weinhard.

The Wrong Day to Take the Train

This was one of those days that makes you wonder why you thought commuting by public transit was a good idea. Rich had an afternoon meeting in the South Bay, so he drove me to the station where I caught the 8:17 train.

Unfortunately, a northbound train apparently hit a car, "abandoned on the tracks" near California Ave in Palo Alto, right around the time I was boarding my train. So my southbound train started off normally, then slowed down, then stopped in Menlo Park with a train ahead and a train behind. And we sat there. ...
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Up to My Ears

If you read my weblog regularly, you may have noticed that my posting has become.. erratic. There will be nothing for as much as a week, then, suddenly, I post three or four entries (usually backdated).

There's a reason for this. I can't claim it's a good reason, but here it is: ...
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If I Have to Use Windows

At least I can make the best of a bad deal

Oh I Wish I Drove an Oscar Mayer Weiner

The Weinermobile is in town! It's a "Custom-made Fiberglass Hot Dog Resting on a Lightly Toasted Bun". It drove past while we were at the Post Office tonight.

...
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Hit The Ball, Drag Fred

There's a joke that Rich and I like. A man is telling his friend about a recent golf game.

Man: I was playing a round of golf on Saturday with Fred. Fred keeled over on the 13th hole!

Friend: That's terrible! What happened?

Man: Well, I still shot two under par. But it was awful. For the next five holes, it was "Hit the ball, drag Fred."

I started a new contract on Monday. ...
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Inconvenience Store

Your Government at Work

I don't usually write about anything politically motivated, but there is a limit to my tolerance.

Spouse has a cold. He has a cough and a stuffed-up nose. Today, I drove to the nearest drugstore (10 minutes by car) to buy him some cough & cold remedy. ...
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Trivia

Just passing it along...

If your right hand is one key to the left of the home keys, i.e. HJKL instead of JKL; then ...
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InsPURRation

I have a Group I started over a year ago which I call "InsPURRation".

InsPURRation is a group for sharing inspirational and motivational stories, photos, poems, and thoughts. The initial group was made up of people who understand how soothing, helpful, and inspirational animals (and particularly cats) can be. However, you don't need to have a cat to join or participate! :-) People with dogs, rabbits, or just backyard birds & squirrels are very welcome!

Automatic Weblog Posting

I wanted people who play to be able to leave comments or links to their weblogs. ...
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Maker Faire

The first magazine devoted entirely to DIY technology projects, MAKE Magazine unites, inspires and informs a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements and garages.

Technorati Tags: makerfaire

How to Catch a Mouse

I recently ran across a write-up of an elegant and humane "catch and release" method for ridding your home of unwanted house guests of the rodent variety... It looks like a cute trick. Happily, the only time we ever had a mouse in our house, we knew exactly where he was and were able to trap and remove him in an even simpler fashion. ...
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Egad! It's Tax Time.

Here we go again. Time for my yearly plug. :-)

I loathe tax time. I bear a deep and abiding dislike for the proportional tax system and I don't trust the IRS.

I also don't enjoy paperwork (although I'm far less allergic to it than Rich). If I had a choice, I would much rather not handle my own tax preparation. Unfortunately, we had a Very Bad Experience about twenty years ago; we're averse to trusting a third party to handle such an important financial process for us.

So, every year at about this time, I drag out this year's folder, stomp on my natural procrastination tendencies, and start typing numbers into little boxes. ugh. The good news — I type those numbers and the computer does the math. I do my taxes using Turbo Tax. The program handles the painful parts so I don't have to. ...
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Snapshirts

I made a custom "word cloud" t-shirt for myself using the furkids' weblog. for the content. The company I used is called SnapShirts.

...
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Do You Digg It?

I have started to use digg.

Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.

Splendid Bowl

We don't really care about football. Amend that. We really don't care about football. Football ranks with things like, oh, marketing surveys for toothpaste and the gross national product of Elbonia.

So, when my sister mentioned in a letter that she had spent a day in a hotel room, on an out-of-town weekend trip to Chicago, watching a Steelers game, I thought "Okaaay". That's... a bit of an odd thing to do on an out-of-town weekend.". But, whatever floats your boat. ...
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Linking Up With LinkedIn

I have had a LinkedIn account at the free (aka "Personal") level for almost a year, since February 10, 2005. I joined because a former co-worker suggested it on one of the mailing lists I subscribe to. He queried the list wondering if we had enough mass to make a LinkedIn "group". I was curious, as were others, and we entertained a brief flurry of membership and connection requests.

Things slowed down for a while. Then I began to notice a steady increase in LinkedIn invitations in my Inbox. At this point I have 89 connections and 17 outstanding invitations pending. ...
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Calendar Holder-Upper

In my office, I have a bookcase to the left of my desk. I have always hung a wall calendar on the side of the bookcase and I can see it from my desk. Unfortunately, the lower part of the calendar has been partially obscured by the "cat buckets" above my monitors. So, I asked Rich to help me figure out how to solve the problem.

How could I extend things so that the calendar hung in a position that made it easier to see? ...
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Fighting the Phone Company

We had a run-in with the telephone company today. I picked up the phone to make a call and got those wonderful "trouble tones" (doo Doo DOO! We're sorry, but...). Our service had been temporarily disconnected.

$%^@&*()! ...
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Language Lessons

I don't know how it is where you live, but a lot of the stores around here are fiercely bilingual, usually English/Spanish. I often wonder what the various Chinese / Japanese / Tagalog / Korean -speaking folks think of this, but that's the subject for another entry.

The result is that many products are labeled in at least two languages, (French being the common alternate choice). Rich and I enjoy learning words and phrases in other languages this way. ...
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Discardia: Dec 21 - Dec 30, 2005

Celebrate Discardia this week. Discardia is a floating holiday to celebrate letting go.

Unlike other holidays, Discardia, occurs more than once a year, as determined by the sun and the moon. Discardia takes place in the time between the Solstices & Equinoxes and their following new moons. So, the length varies as well as the dates; sometimes it's short and sometimes it's long.

Discardia is a celebration of... nothing. ...
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Say, What?

We stopped into Starbucks last night. Rich had a coupon and we were in the shopping center already.

Rich: "I'll have a large mocha."

Counterguy: "Vente?"

Rich: "Large"

On the way home, Rich said "I go into a place like that to buy a drink. I don't do it to learn a new language. Why should I have to jump through their hoops to use their made-up words?"

Beats me. At least they never ask if we want fries with that...

Didja Vote?

[B.C. by Johnny Hart, Nov. 8, 2005]

Did you vote today? We did... (Does your area have anywhere near as many election seasons as ours does?We seem to have two a year).

It always seems weird to me that we just walk in, tell the people our names, sign the "book", and are given a ballot. No ID. No proof. I could pretend to be the woman across the street. Someone else could say she was me.

I'm still waiting (wishin' and a-hopin') for online voting. Unfortunately, it's going to be difficult to implement in a secure and trustworthy fashion. Voting needs to be both anonymous and controlled (no more than one vote per person but no way to match the person with the vote). Trustworthy isn't the same as secure, either. Something can be secure — difficult to break into — and still not trustworthy. Until then, I guess we have to put up with the annoyance of lines, dried-out markers, and "hanging chad".

Rearranging the (Virtual) Furniture

I built my "home on the WWW" sometime in 1994. Except for adding new pages on occasion, things didn't change much after that. (Some years back a friend commented that I was still using the same photo. Well, I still look pretty much as I did then...).

Recently, however, I decided my webhome could use a makeover.

I simplified my template and started using CSS (something that wasn't available ten years ago). I'm also using PHP now. PHP handles "including" of content; it also provides support for a large range of possible future features.

The basic content hasn't changed, but the look is a little fresher. I invite you to visit.

Happy Halloween

B O O !

Scharffen Berger

There were no Oompa Loompas, but...

Our friend Quinn decided that it would be fun to celebrate his birthday (today) by inviting a group of friends to join him for a tour of the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory in Berkeley. The "tour" is actually nearly an hour of talk (history of chocolate and history of Scharffen Berger), touching, smelling, and looking at cocoa beans in various states, and chocolate tasting. This is followed by a quick visit to the factory floor to see the machines.

The factory is house in a 27,000 sq. foot, not-quite-100-year-old brick building (retrofitted for earthquake safety) with arched ceilings and handsome architecture. The company moved to the present site in May, 2001. The entire building — gift shop, restrooms, tour presentation room — smells like chocolate. Wow. (I can still smell chocolate :-) ...
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Color Copier

Our photocopier started getting over-sensitive a while back. First copies came out with a greyish tinge... then greyer... and greyer. Eventually they were becoming pretty much unreadable. As this was an "all-in-one" unit (copier, fax, etc) the faxes were having similar problems. We finally broke down and decided to buy a new copier. ...
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Airtight

We have become converts to the Power of Saran™ Wrap.

Back in January, we went to a talk by Harold McGee, entitled "Three Centuries of Science in the Kitchen". McGee tests "well-known" kitchen lore, separating fact from wiverglava (old wives' tales). One of the myths he debunked was the one that states that putting the pit into the guacamole will keep it green. (It's true, actually, but only under the pit. The reason is that avocado turns brown on contact with oxygen in the air.)

McGee's tests not only showed the real reason that the pit keeps the avocado green (so did a light bulb. ;-) His experiments also showed that Saran™ Wrap has the lowest oxygen permeation of all the various plastic wraps.

We've been using Saran™ Wrap when we store cut fruit in the fridge. It really does work to keep the fruit from browning quickly. Be sure to stretch it tight and taut; Saran™ Wrap isn't very "sticky".

For ordinary wrapping and covering, however, we still use the giant economy sized box of generic Plastic Food Wrap from Smart & Final. 1000 feet of plastic wrap is at least a 5-year supply!

I Feel So Protected

My new G5 is in Limbo. :-(

I placed the order last Friday morning (August 26). Supposedly, "orders are processed within 2 to 4 business days". Okaaaay. Seems a little long. But.

Except. Except that apparently they don't put the credit card through until they've "processed" the order. And when they did that, a flag went up at The Bank. This is a "large" purchase. It must be verified! Okaaaay. It's not unusual for our buying habits but,,,

Except. Except that when they feel the need to verify they don't hold a transaction, they cancel it. So The Bank got in touch with us, we got in touch with the Bank, we verified and authorized the purchase. Now we get to call Apple.

So, we called Apple. Entered the order number on the phone (oops, that timed out). Spoke to a customer service rep. Gave that person the order number. Got transferred. Gave that person the order number. Got transferred. Entered the order number on the phone (oops, that timed out). Spoke to another customer service rep. Told that person we were really tired of being transferred (and gave her the order number).

The machine is somewhere in California, "in process". It will now ship out sometime between today and next Tuesday. We hope. The good news is that Apple has offered to expedite shipping. The bad news is that "expedited shipping" could still, possibly, not get here until a week from today.

As Rich says, "Aren't you glad you reverted?"

Tiger Yes, G3 No

I upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) last week. That was the easy part. Then the problems started.

My cursor was freezing several times a day. Unplugging and replugging the USB cable would get it moving again but... that's just not right. Once, my keyboard stopped sending signals (although the mouse was working that time).

Then there were the crashes. Oy!

I think the crashes may have been brought on by the too-frequent resetting of the USB and mouse but... at least twice a day, sometimes three or four times, always at the worst possible time. Crash. (Actually, Mac OS X is usually very polite. "We're sorry. You need to restart your computer.")

System 6 wasn't this bad. Even Windows isn't this bad!

What could have gone wrong? ...
       Continue reading "Tiger Yes, G3 No"

Wordsaver

I found a new screensaver (for Mac OS X). It shows random words, lines, or paragraphs from text files. By default, it pulls words from /usr/share/dict/web2. They're great words.

The distribution also comes with a few files you might enjoy, including an (editable) set of quotes. Configuration options include the ability to choose random colors and fonts.

Cool!

Drip drip drip

The kitchen sink has been dripping for ages and Rich finally got tired of it. That and he discovered that the deep basin we'd put under the sink to catch any leaks had about 2 gallons of water in it. Not good at all. So he took the sink apart, thinking he would need to replace at least a washer or two.

Oops. "Apart" is the operative word. The bolts that held the faucet assembly to the sink had become a pile of rusty crumbs. So. New faucets. Erm. Well, at least we didn't also need a new sink. ...
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Ori-garment

We have learned to fold t-shirts. Last summer, we found this wonderful short movie depicting the not-so-ancient Japanese (?) technique of t-shirt-foldong. Wow. We were, to say the least, impressed. Also mind-boggled. How did she do that? Well, today, Rich stepped through the "miracle" part (ain't QuickTime wunnerful?) and when I got home he gave me a demonstration. Of course, now that we understand, all is obvious in the movie clip. If you want to learn to fold a t-shirt (and don't understand the voice-over and captions in the movie clip), try my instruction set with pictures copied from the movie.

The Time is now... 1111111111

Fun for technoids ** ;-)

1111111111 translates to Thursday, March 17th 2005, 17:58:31 (GMT -8)

Online Tools: Unix Timestamp Convertor

** The Unix date/time is stored inside the computer as the number of seconds since Jan. 1, 1970.

Just Say N2O

My dental hygienist found a cavity at my recent cleaning :-( I had it filled today.

I do not "do" novacaine. I do not like to be stuck with a red-hot railroad spike, then have my lip be numb for the next four hours. I take nitrous.

Nitrous oxide is a very safe and popular agent still utilized by dentists today. It is much less toxic than alternatives, such as chloroform, with far less risk of explosion than ether. The main use for N2O is usually as a mild sedative and analgesic. It helps to allay anxiety that many patients may have toward dental treatment, and it offers some degree of painkilling ability.

School of Chemistry, University of Bristol Molecule of the Month

This is not to say that I like to get my teeth filled. I am not a masochist. It's still unpleasant. It's just not... painful. But it's better than the alternative. And with headphones and soft music, the time pases.

(My Dad does it without nitrous or novacaine. Whooooweeee!)

Fun With Spam

Spam is a plague, a disaster, a dreadful ramification of the Information Age, a torrential onslaught on the email inboxes of all right-thinking and innocent people. It can also, on occasion, be fun. Sometimes we have to take our amusement where we find it.

One of my "favorite" recent spam techniques is the effort to which some spammers go to prevent spam catching software from (correctly!) identifying their misbegotten drivel as, well... spam. They obfuscate the subject; the obfuscate the body. Sometimes they go to such extremes of obfuscation that one wonders what they had in mind originally!

For example, I recently received this in my Inbox:

    Subject: of oysters in huge

There's something both oddly surreal and compelling about it. I feel I should sit and meditate on the hidden meanings. Or something.

The body was considerably less interesting, a typical m o rrtgage [sic] "offer". They should have stopped while they were ahead. ...
       Continue reading "Fun With Spam"

Junior Achievement (pt. 2)

Two weeks after signing up for the Junior Achievement program, all Company volunteers trooped over to the "sponsored school" one afternoon to meet the teachers whose classes we'd be working with. I had a few new feelings of trepidation, not being quite sure if the teacher was really happy with this program (or confident in me). After all, she asked if I had ever done anything like this before and I said "no."

Nevertheless, we exchanged names and contact information. I gave the teacher one copy of the activity guide and we decided when I would come (Tuesdays at 11am, starting the following week). Then that meeting was over and I went back to work. ...
       Continue reading "Junior Achievement (pt. 2)"

Junior Achievement (pt. 1)

As I have mentioned in my Weekly Wrap-ups, I have been volunteering for Junior Achievement in November. Junior Achievement is a not-for-profit organization, the purpose of which is to "educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve the quality of their lives."

The Elementary School Program is for students in grades K - 6. ...
       Continue reading "Junior Achievement (pt. 1)"

Company Potluck

The Company hosted a pre-Thanksgiving potluck tonight after work from 5 to 7 pm,. Families were invited. Several people brought their kids. There were candles on each table, floating in bowls of water. There was a lot of food. The company supplied two (whole) turkeys, two hams, beverages and paper products. People brought sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, appetizers, and a whole bunch of yummy deserts.

I introduced Rich to a bunch of people I work with. He had a nice chat with one of my co-workers about X Windows and Linux ;-) I'm very pleased that the company decided to do such a nice little informal party and that they invited families.

Around the Bay Area in 90 days

We've had our Scion XB for 90 days and just over 3000 miles now and I still love it! It's a cute little car and soooo comfortable.

It's averaging about 27 mpg - not quite the advertised 32, but not too shabby. It's fun to drive and easy to park. The other night we drove it into the City and parked in a space between two driveways. We weren't sure we would fit but we did (with 6 inches to spare)!

I've had a few more people ask about it. I tell them to try one. Sit in it. Take a test drive. You may be convinced the same way we were.

New Cell phones

My very first cell phone was an early Motorola, purchased in 1993. It had an LED display, if I recall correctly. For the day, it was one of the smallest available. I replaced that a few years later with a (smaller) Ericson phone with LCD display. Then a few years after that, a Motorola StarTac, purchased shortly after the StarTac was released. I loved the little form factor and the great dial-from-memory interface.

It didn't take long to convince Spouse to get a StarTac too. This was the first phone he was willing to consider carrying on occasion. So, for quite a few years, we've had a pair of StarTacs. We've seen all the snazzy new phones, but the StarTacs still worked and they were small. Why upgrade again?

Recently, however, one of the StarTacs stopped working reliably out of town. I thought perhaps it was having difficulty reaching an Analog cell. Actually, that seems to be a good guess. It's an Analog only phone (not a dual mode) and apparently the Cellular providers are madly replacing the Analog cells with Digital. Time to upgrade.

So, today we went down to the Verizon store to see about replacing the phone. While we were there, we asked what it would cost to replace the other StarTac at the same time. ...
       Continue reading "New Cell phones"

Working Here, Working There

I worked from home on Tuesday. I got a lot done. I put in nine and a half hours without noticing. I didn't feel the need to "get up, get out, and get away". It was quiet. There were no distractions.

I got work done. I was productive. I felt relaxed. It was wonderful.

I had planned to work from home again today. I had hoped to make working from home a regular part of my schedule.

Unfortunately, there was a sinkhole in my road to productive off site work and I walked right into it. I made a fatal political error. I announced my intentions.

Bad move. ...
       Continue reading "Working Here, Working There"

Well Oriented

I am now, officially, a well oriented regular FTE. Today I attended 6 hours of orientation. Parts of the day were interesting; I learned a few things about the Company that I didn't yet know. We were given several small presentations.

The Company likes to put everyone through orientation (even people who've been onsite as contractors for 3 months :-) simply because they figure there may be one or two things someone has missed by coming in "diagonalwise". It's not such a bad idea. Now I'm "up to speed" and also ahead a bit.

Last Day of Contract

Today was the last day of my second six-week contract at The Job. We won't be renewing again because on Monday I will become a salaried "permanent" FTE (Full Time Employee). Woo hoo.

I like the company, the people, and the Job (and if I have to drive to a Job, the commute could hardly be much better) so I asked for this. It took 6 weeks to accomplish everything necessary for the conversion but we got there.

Looking back through various entries, I don't seem to have ever really specified what kind of work I'm doing! This is an Internal Documentation position; I am the "Internal Technical Writer". That means that I have been writing, reviewing, and editing engineering design specs, intranet web pages, how-tos, and architecture overviews. I've also been on call to the "external" Tech Writer (the technical publications department) for help with writing, reviewing, proofreading, etc for the product user guide and release notes. Not much will change about the parameters of the Job, but I will be able to take on more speculative and long-term projects now. ...
       Continue reading "Last Day of Contract"

A Toy Car for Adults

Q. What do you get when you cross a sedan with a minivan?
A. A Scion XB

...
       Continue reading "A Toy Car for Adults"

It's a Wrap

Or, in this case, it's a pressure-point reliever.

We've been using bubblewrap in the bottom of our fruitbowl. We have a large, shallow, wooden bowl we use for holding fruit — apples, bananas, pears, occasionally peaches. We were tired of the fruit getting bruised on the bottom.

Then Rich considered putting a layer or two of bubblewrap in the bottom of the bowl. Now the fruit rests on air.

"But!", you say. "I like to pop the bubbles! We never have any bubblewrap left to use for fruit." Well, if you like to pop bubblewrap, try virtual bubblewrap. You can pop forever and still put a sheet or two of the real stuff in your fruitbowl.

I Want a Flintmobile!

OK, it looks like something Fred Flintstone would drive. But it has visibility. It has headroom. It has legroom!. It's an amazing car. Have you tried sitting in one? Have you tried driving one?

I have.

I want a new car!

Specifically, I want a Scion XB. ...
       Continue reading "I Want a Flintmobile!"

Almost 10 weeks

Monday (technically) will mark the end of my 10th week at The Job; I started on Tuesday, May 4. ...
       Continue reading "Almost 10 weeks"

Red White and Boom

Rich suggested I meet him in Palo Alto and we could have dinner and then go over to see the fireworks at Stanford. I thought that sounded like a good idea.

At 6pm I drove to Millbrae and took what CalTrain calls the "baby bullet train". It only stops at SF, Millbrae, Hillsdale, Palo Alto, and San Jose. Saves 15 minutes off the regular "Express". ...
       Continue reading "Red White and Boom"

Close Encounters of the Ringtailed Kind

The raccoons came back last night. I knew they were around when we went out to the tub — first because Squirrel was pasted to the window watching something in the yard and then because I saw a raccoon on the fence while we were in the tub.

Two of them walked back and forth across the sunroom roof a lot after we went back inside. Raccoons are a lot like cats in that they walk along and then just... sit down. Then they start grooming. These kept getting up and walking a bit, then flopping down again and grooming something else. I shone a flashlight up through the glass to see them better. ...
       Continue reading "Close Encounters of the Ringtailed Kind"

Week 5 on The Job

Today marked the end of my 5th week on The Job (depending how one counts; I started on a Tuesday and there has been one holiday). The Job was originally spec'd as a 6-week temporary contract. Now the question is — will they keep me on?

This particular contract is short-term, but if you are enthusiastic, do good work, and we like you, there might be more work in the future.

I've tried to be enthusiastic (hmmm... I've actually left a few meetings wondering if I've been perhaps too enthusiastic...). I believe I've done good work. I surely hope they like me; I've received complimentary feedback from several co-workers.

I'd like to stay on. ...
       Continue reading "Week 5 on The Job"

Saga of the Shredder

Rich and I have had a crosscut shredder for many years. We'd been using a Royal CX7000, a $99 model that worked well but was noisy and had some trouble with more than 3 to 5 sheets of paper (although it laid claim to 7). We tend to want to shred a few more sheets at a time, possibly without unfolding them. For example, my credit card company keeps insisting on tempting me with cash-advance checks. These are not something I will use and not something I can simply toss into the recycling bin.

So back in January of this year, we decided to look for a model that could do more, maybe even one with a hopper to hold a lot of paper. Our web search turned up a terrific unit that would do everything we wanted it to do, with a hopper and everything! However, for $8000, we thought perhaps we should keep looking ;-) ...
       Continue reading "Saga of the Shredder"

First Time Sheet

I turned in my first time sheet yesterday; it covers three weeks. The company I am working at is a bit unusual; they pay once a month. Most companies I have worked for in the past have paid twice a month or, in one or two cases, every week.

I had actually been under the impression that California Labor Laws required at least 2 pay periods per month (at least, that's what Apple told its employees many years ago when they changed from weekly to biweekly pay periods). Apparently, however, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) comes into the picture under certain circumstances which allow pay periods of once a month provided specific conditions are met.

All wages, ... earned by any person in any employment are due and payable twice during each calendar month, on days designated in advance by the employer as the regular paydays. Labor performed between the 1st and 15th days, inclusive, of any calendar month shall be paid for between the 16th and the 26th day of the month during which the labor was performed, and labor performed between the 16th and the last day, inclusive, of any calendar month, shall be paid for between the 1st and 10th day of the following month. However, salaries of executive, administrative, and professional employees of employers covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, ... may be paid once a month on or before the 26th day of the month during which the labor was performed if the entire month's salaries, including the unearned portion between the date of payment and the last day of the month, are paid at that time.

[ cf. State of California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Labor Standards Enforcement publication The Laws Relating to the Time, Manner, and Payment of Wages ]

I'm always interested in this sort of stuff. ...
       Continue reading "First Time Sheet"

Writing Groups

I have often mentioned that one of my entries in this space is in response to a writing prompt from one group or another. I currently subscribe to 8 such online writing groups! If you like to write (especially if you keep a journal — online or off), you may be interested in joining a writing group. There are many such (also both online and off ;-). These are the ones I like. ...
       Continue reading "Writing Groups"

New Job, Second Week

Hey! I had work to do this week! Not a huge amount, but enough to keep the mind alive.

I reviewed a chapter of the User Guide. The Tech Pubs writer thinks he'll have more for me to do this coming week. I went over my review of a design spec with one of the engineers, and I should have "ownership" of that document next week, to tweak, twiddle, and frob it to my heart's content :-)

Friday, I worked on updating a couple of web-based tutorials. As I will need to know the stuff they explain, I'm in a perfect position to work on these as I try them out.

New Job, First Week

I survived my first week (four days, 34.5 hours) at the new job. I hate the first week of a new job. There's often nothing, really, to do. Exploring and familiarizing only takes so long and gets old rather quickly. ...
       Continue reading "New Job, First Week"

New Job - First Day

I hate first days. I'm not crazy about first weeks.

I started my new job today with a short IT orientation at 9:00. Actually, the orientation didn't start till almost 9:30 because I was the only one there. Then the second person showed up about 10 minutes into the short presentation (which the IT guy restarted) and the third person showed up a little after that. By then, I could probably have given the short IT presentation. The other two people were coming from what I would consider an uncomfortable distance away. One came from Walnut Creek. (When we first got to the Bay Area, we lived in Walnut Creek for 3 months and I commuted to South San Francisco. It was torturous!) The other person came up from Los Gatos. Gah! That's further south than Campbell (where I worked last Fall) and in the major commute direction. Ugh!

I got a computer by noon. The good news is that it's a Powermac G4 running Mac OS X. The bad news is that it's a 15" laptop. Sigh. I brought in my trackball today and I borrowed a USB keyboard for most of the day; being a Windoze keyboard, the command and option (Windowze and Alt) keys were in the "wrong" order, so I'll bring in a Mac keyboard tomorrow.

With assistance from Facilities (called for this reason) we found the switch to turn on the overhead fluorescents. This is another Clan of the Cave People — most of the engineers like to work in the dark with just the light from their screens and maybe a desk lamp. Blech!. I truly do not understand these people who want to sit in the dark; even before I realized how affected I was by the ambient light, I never turned everything off! I remember turning off one or two bulbs to reduce glare, or running incandescent lamps reflecting off the ceiling but I never sat in the dark with just the light from my screen!

There's a window on the other side of the cubicle partition (beyond the corridor). If I look in just the right direction I can see a little piece of it.

Sigh. It's a 6-week contract; I will survive. If it looks like the job can be extended for longer, I'll try to negotiate for at least half time off site. At the job site I have a 6x6 cubicle, a laptop with one 15", a truly uncomfortable chair (which I plan to rectify tomorrow), abysmally poor lighting, too much noise, and multiple distractions, including people walking by all day, cel phones ringing, voices heard down the hall... At home I have a 12' by 15' office, 4 cats, 3 17" screens, plenty of light, very little noise, and essentially no distractions. And I'm only 10 minutes away by car. But in return for all of the inconveniences and productivity reducers, they will pay me. Yech! Ptooie!.

Tomorrow is another day. Onward and upward.

Job Interview

Job Audition

I spent much of the past week auditioning for a programming job. Yes, I said auditioning.

It all started last Wednesday morning when I saw a possible job listed on Dice (an online job site). The job requirements specified Perl, JavaScript, DOM, and VoiceXML experience in a Unix environment. I'd never used VoiceXML specifically but I've used XML. I looked up the VoiceXML spec... that didn't look too hard. So I sent off an enquiry with my resume.

I got a call from the agency within 30 minutes. We talked. There was a pre-interview qualifying "test" associated with the position. That was intriguing. The quoted rate, not posted on Dice, was low (right at my (grudging) bottom limit) but I figured I'd take a look at the test before making any further decisions. ...
       Continue reading "Job Audition"

Summoned to Appear (part 4 of 4)

I was Summoned to Appear for Jury Duty this past Monday, April 12. The story begins here, continuing with part 2 and part 3. The fourth and final installment is below. ]

I headed out of the elevator, checked a sign board that said 8D was at the far end, and headed down to the courtroom. I arrived as the bailiff was saying "This doesn't look like 30 people". I said "It isn't; they're behind me; the elevators were really slow." The bailiff (a woman with long crinkly blonde hair and a Sheriff's office insignia) agreed that slow elevators were normal.

Then everyone else came in and took a seat and the courtroom clerk took roll. One woman was missing. So, the courtroom clerk called downstairs to the Jury Assembly room clerk who called over the PA system and...

Meanwhile, I sat waiting, looking around the courtroom. It was a nicely appointed courtroom with lots of wood paneling. The jury seats were grey swivel chairs, apparently well padded. The "audience/observation" area had flip-up seats like a lecture hall. It was a large room but only 3 rows of observation seats so everyone would be near any action.

The defendant(?) sat at a table with, presumably, counsel for the defense, occasionally talking in undertones. The other lawyer, a woman, sat at the other end of a long table. Both lawyers wore blue suits. The defendant wore a long-sleeved, buttoned white shirt, no tie, something unidentifiable in his shirt pocket, and a mohawk haircut. ...
       Continue reading "Summoned to Appear (part 4 of 4)"

Summoned to Appear (part 3 of 4)

[ I was Summoned to Appear for Jury Duty this past Monday, April 12. The story begins here, and continues with part 2. The third installment is below. ]

After the video, we were released to walk around until we might be called back. Our clerk pointed out that we should stay on the lower level. "I have a PA system. It's only on this floor. It's in the cafeteria and the bathrooms. If you leave this floor, I can't call you back. If you don't come back, it's me who's gonna get it. I mean, you too, but they'll yell at me first."

I wasn't convinced that this was an appropriate group to play on their better sense of nobility. I rather thought she'd keep people around better if she said "They will go after you and you will be fined". I mean, so some mythical person yells at the clerk? Why should a prospective juror care, especially if that gives him or her a head start? I suppose I'm getting cynical. ...
       Continue reading "Summoned to Appear (part 3 of 4)"

Summoned to Appear (part 2 of 4)

[ I was Summoned to Appear for Jury Duty this past Monday, April 12. The story begins here and continues below. ]

I headed down the stairs and down the hall to the Jury Assembly room, joining the line of prospective jurors filling out the "Juror Affidavit" form.

The woman running the Jury Assembly orientation soon began to sound like a robot. She kept repeating over and over "Please have a seat. I need your paperwork. Please include your name, address, home telephone and wor