The provincial government and the money arm (aka Hydro Quebec) both saw fit to announce increases in my spending today. Electricity will simply cost more from now on, and the fee for a driving permit will move towards double. No reason given.
posted in politics | Comments Off on Not everyone is frozen in place | 150 words
The ECMA show was this evening; time-shifted to a Monday to allow for the Olympic steamroller to pass. Thankfully, the musicians don’t have “real jobs” so they could hang around ‘town for another day.
posted in music | Comments Off on A lifetime of achievement | 161 words
The Turin games are over. My preferred memory will be the dragon-harp, shooting out tongues of fire as the strings were beaten with timpani mallets.
posted in media | Comments Off on Olympic tailwind | 131 words
I’ve come to appreciate how well some of the network equipment manufacturers have done, in the context of remote maintenance of a given router or switch. I currently take care of several routers, via the net, and the interface allows me to get in, do the dirty and get out. No huge leaps of conscience, just make the necessary adjustments, hit ‘save’ and go. I even talked one of my sisters through the setup and subsequent remote control this evening, with the chance to tweak performance for her and implant a reasonable level of security.
posted in computing | Comments Off on Remote maintenance | 156 words
This evening I’m able to watch the webcam pointed toward a stage in Charlottetown, where the ECMA weekend is underway. Able to listen while I cut up the stirfry for supper, able to listen while relaxing on the bed upstairs. Laptops rule!
posted in music, technology | Comments Off on Glimpses from the past | 185 words
This is (was?) my second attempt at “running a blog”. My first effort was a low-effort effort (nice juxtaposing of a verb and a noun, or something like that!), but just not satisfying. The second time around, due to the quality of WordPress and the hobbyist portion of having a personal server, is turning out to be much more enjoyable. I’m even becoming a bit of an evangelist at the office.
posted in computing | Comments Off on Edge of the pool | 182 words
Don’t let the title discourage; this is not a religious diatribe, although the speakers definitely had “the faith”. I imagine that about this time of year, all over, teachers and students are beginning the pointed (pointless?) dialog that aims at re-establishing focus before the last stretch. The finals are near. Get ready. (Only those who are already converted are spending their spare moments in preparation for the examination room, but) teachers must deliver the program.
posted in media | Comments Off on Preparing for the final days | 150 words
Tuesday is “Patch-it day” in our office; it used to be a weekly feature, but a decision was made that monthly better fit our needs. So be it. However, there are often warnings and warning signs that slip by in these easier times. We have a number of servers that do experimental duty; the oldest in the farm is currently dedicated to some PHP/MySQL work. The machine also doesn’t have any strategy for recovery after something stops dead. Today, the machine had a lovely warning that a write failure had occurred; then the data drive was gone.
posted in computing | Comments Off on Feels like starting over | 223 words
Today seemed to involve printers. The kind that attaches to your computer in one way or another, and that gives (un)satisfactory results.
posted in computing, economy | Comments Off on Proof in the printing | 290 words
The television sometimes serves up an amazing smorgasbord of factoids: only 10% of adults are able to properly use the hula-hoop. When you perform a slapshot, you actually hit the ice, not the puck. The bobsled race is a game of a few hundredths of a second. Mel Gibson is a reasonably good actor (the last is an opinion, not a factoid).
posted in media | Comments Off on Things my parents never told me | 185 words
