tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56080332011-04-21T11:01:23.598-07:00The Bunch of GrapesA Blog in the Liberty of the SavoyScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comBlogger1191100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1109108380046672392005-02-22T13:38:00.000-08:002005-02-22T13:39:40.046-08:00It's Only Been a YearThat's not so long, it it? Oh, it is? Shoot. Sorry. If it's any consolation, it was a very quick year.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1075748613041433462004-02-02T11:03:00.000-08:002004-02-02T11:05:12.293-08:00The reason I haven't been blogging lately is that suddenly all my creative energies are pouring into producing some really dumb comic strips. I can't do both. Who am I, Superman?Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1074891058465563052004-01-23T12:50:00.000-08:002004-01-23T12:52:27.170-08:00I think the cell phone companies are just making up their numbers.This Reuters Article says that the cell phone ring tone business brought in 3.5 billion dollars last year. According to the article, that's about 10% of the overall world market for all other forms of music combined. Can this be possible?? Please tell me it's a hoax.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1074874602239412572004-01-23T08:16:00.000-08:002004-01-23T08:18:11.233-08:00This article here clears up at least one misconception I had about the Nintendo DS - I think. It sounds like she's saying that the 128 megabytes of memory figure refers not to onboard RAM, but instead refers to the maximum possible size of the game cartridges this thing takes. OK.
Also telling is the information that, indeed the screens are one above each other and - wait for it - can be used Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1074789748608349112004-01-22T08:42:00.000-08:002004-01-22T08:43:56.466-08:00Hey! There's a Pathetic Geek Stories site now! Yay!Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1074731671287470532004-01-21T16:34:00.000-08:002004-01-21T16:35:58.496-08:00So Nintendo's coming out with a portable gaming unit with two screens. They say it won't compete with the Gameboy Advance, or with Sony's upcoming monster-expensive PSP. Nintendo says that having two screens will make the Nintendo DS "completely different than anything that exists right now."
The two screens are reportedly going to be one above the other.
So this is significantly different Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1074724209086712082004-01-21T14:30:00.000-08:002004-01-21T14:44:04.623-08:00I continue to read like a maniac.
High accolades to Jeffrey Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything and It Must've Been Something I Ate. Geek Food prose at its finest. Hilarious at times, as well.
I tried to read Gene Wolf's Book of the New Sun a long time ago, and just didn't get it. But late last month, I picked up The Knight and really enjoyed it. I've since started in on The Book Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1074195530047948592004-01-15T11:38:00.000-08:002004-01-15T11:40:10.966-08:00Tomorrow my wife has an appointment to get some sort of electrical stimulation device that is supposed to help with pain, or so they say. What a helpless feeling. Times like these I envy Theists: at least prayer gives them something to do. Maybe I should convert.
"And why are you looking to join the Church, my son?"
"I need more hobbies."
Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1074195149441419172004-01-15T11:32:00.000-08:002004-01-15T11:33:50.450-08:00My wife's arthritis in her hands and wrists is so bad now that many days she is having trouble feeding herself - she can't open a box or hold an apple. Can you think of anything more depressing? It isn't easy.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1073668391008223802004-01-09T09:13:00.000-08:002004-01-09T09:14:26.310-08:00The gods have been showing their wrath at my lack of blogging by pelting Portland with angry winter-style weather. Usually a snowfall is quite a unique and memorable event here in the City of Roses. We've had so many snowstorms, ice storms, and little-ice-pellet storms lately that I can't get it clear in my head.
Let's see, I know we had some snow on the ground the morning of Dec. 29, Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1071946100349120612003-12-20T10:48:00.000-08:002003-12-20T10:50:16.390-08:00I agree with this that the math and science used in this week's CSI to determine how far away a bullet would have to be fired from to have a certain velocity at impact was total nonsense - it might as well have been fired straight up from next door, rather than from 1800 feet away. My intuition tells me that a bullet falling at terminal velocity would be fatally dangerous, though. It's small Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1071945532194437152003-12-20T10:38:00.000-08:002003-12-20T10:39:47.373-08:00I went to the coast for a short while yesterday. My wife didn't come; she wasn't feeling well enough to go. Just me and our dog Haggis. We didn't spend long; just an hour or two walking on Cannon Beach. The weather was misty but fairly warm and the waves were high. The tide was up, so no beachcombing. I still enjoyed myself; I love the Oregon coast.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1071792090807373412003-12-18T16:01:00.000-08:002003-12-18T16:02:24.746-08:00I just last night finished Doomsday Book, an earlier Connie Willis time-travel novel. It was much better. I guess I'd go ahead and categorize it as a good book.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1071791922136043702003-12-18T15:58:00.000-08:002003-12-18T15:59:36.093-08:00So I'm taking three weeks off from work, which you'd think would mean more time for blogging, but in practice means less, because neither my wife nor I really like it when the other one is on the computer when we're both at home. She's napping right now, which is good, because her arthritis pain is really killing her most of the time and her sleep has been very irregular.
Mostly my vacation so Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1071790610365326252003-12-18T15:36:00.000-08:002003-12-18T15:37:43.793-08:00The worst of all possible things happened today when I read Michael's Blog - it had enough new content to put mine to deep shame. I will now go put a link to it over there -->Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1070993703678391172003-12-09T10:15:00.000-08:002003-12-09T10:15:48.250-08:00Invention idea:
A pocket calculator with keys that can be removed and rearranged. Sell it with a big set of keys (hex numbers, metric conversions, etc.) and let people build their own calculator to fit their pocket-calculator needs.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1070993426296880352003-12-09T10:10:00.000-08:002003-12-09T11:53:14.810-08:00It's been too long since I've blogged. This is obviously a sign that I've done absolutely nothing lately. I did finish To Say Nothing of the Dog. It was kind of "eh." Not bad, but not really that good either.
I made some strawberry cheesecake ice cream, not following a recipe. It turned out pretty good, except for freezing a little too hard (the bane of my ice-cream-making life.)
YesterdayScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1070475886154217142003-12-03T10:24:00.000-08:002003-12-03T10:27:46.076-08:00Evidence that I recently had a stroke:I forgot my wallet yesterday. Just took my keys and left the wallet on the table. Didn't notice until 11:30 am.
The previously-related purchasing-the-wrong-Amy-Tan-book incident
The fact that I can't even remember the rest of my evidence now.
Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1070409114924125332003-12-02T15:51:00.000-08:002003-12-02T15:52:33.140-08:00Sunday morning we were going out to buy a Christmas tree (what you want to do is just stop at the first lot you come to, rather that trying to drive all the way out into the country where the trees are for some reason more expensive) and so I wanted to groom myself a little - can't have the Christmas tree people think I'm some sort of holiday-ruining slob. I didn't want to shave, though. Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1070408744408278482003-12-02T15:45:00.000-08:002003-12-02T15:46:22.090-08:00Burt Reynolds had a guest appearance in Perry Mason, in 1957's "The Case of the Counterfeit Crank." Just thought you might like to know. While we're on the topic, Richard Dreyfuss appeared (as a lad named "Lud" no less) on Big Valley in 1965. He was 18 at the time. Lee Majors was 26.
When you watch a lot of old shows on the Hallmark Channel (motto: "what's the deal with all these old shows?"Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1070408170217895972003-12-02T15:36:00.000-08:002003-12-02T15:38:44.436-08:00I have been reading a lot of books lately. It's as if I were some sort of book-reading cyborg sent from the future to read a lot of books. My wife must be sick of seeing me with my nose in a book.
I read both of Dave Barry's novels, first the second one, Tricky Business, then the first one, Big Trouble. I stayed away from Big Trouble at first because Tim Allen was in the movie they made of itScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1069875982187900322003-11-26T11:46:00.000-08:002003-11-26T11:46:53.576-08:00So I finally read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel [amazon]. I say "finally" because it seems sometimes like half the other things I read mention it.
If you don't know, it's a book about the deep causes of why some human societies (oh, say the Europeans) conquered others (oh, say the natives of the Americas) and not the other way around. Diamond has an axe to grind regarding prevalent - Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1069862784768765072003-11-26T08:06:00.000-08:002003-11-26T08:06:56.576-08:00Check out this Interactive Holiday Snowglobe. A real work of art.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1069711830872643092003-11-24T14:10:00.000-08:002003-11-24T14:11:00.840-08:00OK, I'm feeling melancholy. Maybe it's work, maybe it's Wife's arthritis, maybe it's the gloomy days, or maybe it's grief for Dad - I don't know. Combo pack?
I made Rum Raisin ice cream this weekend, half-following a generic custard-based ice cream recipe and half winging it. It came out nicely. The recipe was more-or-less:
2 cups cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cups Torani Vanilla Syrup
4 egg yolks
1Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1069431069567198902003-11-21T08:11:00.000-08:002003-11-21T08:11:36.326-08:00
Another activity you may think I should avoid.
Actually I was already aware of the dangers of frying turkeys. Not just from [SPOILER] this week's Ed, either. Indeed, the de facto leader of the geek cooking movement, Alton Brown, is on the record against the practice.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1069265961271640812003-11-19T10:19:00.000-08:002003-11-19T10:19:45.996-08:00It's snowing, it's snowing. Big fat luscious beautiful flakes. Will it cool down enough for them to accumulate? A nation holds its breath.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1069189557242814142003-11-18T13:05:00.000-08:002003-11-18T13:06:21.296-08:00I'm depressed because Mario Kart: Double Dash seems unexciting and ungreat. I was afraid this might happen. If a new Mario Kart game isn't the greatest thing ever, what's left in life to look forward to? Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1069088208425434342003-11-17T08:56:00.000-08:002003-11-17T08:57:10.610-08:00My wife and I saw Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World yesterday. (She hasn't read the books, but she's listened to a few books-on-tape, so she has some familiarity with Aubry / Maturin.)
So, did the movie live up to the anticipation? It came close, but of course no movie could. It captured many aspects of the books beautifully. Russell Crowe is just terrific as Jack Aubrey. PaulScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1069087141188797892003-11-17T08:39:00.000-08:002003-11-17T09:58:41.983-08:00I visited Mom in Eugene Saturday. Nothing much to report; we both seem ok about Dad, I guess. So if I'm waiting for some big emotional catharsis, then I'm still waiting. Perhaps the most exciting thing about the trip was that I has the best $9.00 hamburger. Mom knows a few really good places to eat in Eugene; this was at Marché, downstairs in the fifth street market.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1068739146165804122003-11-13T07:59:00.000-08:002003-11-13T07:59:25.246-08:00Some somber news - yesterday evening I received a call from my mom, who had received a call from (of all people) my uncle, who had received a call from a deputy with the Multnomah County medical investigator's office. My father - estranged from me for four years now - had taken his own life by a gunshot to the head earlier in the day. I don't want to delve too much into my feelings (or perhaps Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1068683143487071512003-11-12T16:25:00.000-08:002003-11-12T16:25:40.810-08:00So here's what the new ice cream maker looks like:
It's a tank. A glorious, stainless-steel tank. The entire top, including the mixing bowl, is one solid piece of stainless steel, with a single hole where the driveshaft emerges. (So yes, cleaning it requires some creativity.) The blade that goes onto the driveshaft is a heavy, no-nonsense piece of metal reminiscent of something you'd find onScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1068654146021773432003-11-12T08:22:00.000-08:002003-11-12T08:22:23.336-08:00Sorry about the lack of updates - I've been sick. It started with a sore throat, then went to chest congestion, then nasal, sinus, and ear congestion, with accompanying fatigue. Good times. Good times.
There are a few topics I would like to tackle here later, if I have the time and energy. One, I finally finished Jak II and feel a full review is in order. Two, we got out Musso Lussina ice Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1068071784640217452003-11-05T14:36:00.000-08:002003-11-05T14:36:22.666-08:00Completely immersed in CryptoAPI, PKIs, and trying to implement Digital Signatures this week. I'm starting to get past the fear of the new and get into it as an interesting problem - somewhat.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1067877082563390132003-11-03T08:31:00.000-08:002003-11-03T08:31:20.970-08:00So last night was the Simon and Garfunkel concert at the Rose Garden. It really was good. I suppose you can tell if a concert worked by seeing if you are still humming the songs the next morning. I am.
(Hey, if I get the names of songs wrong here, cut me some slack. It was only two days ago that I learned that the some obviously titled "By the Light" is actually "The Boxer." I'm not a music Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1067616302767274192003-10-31T08:05:00.000-08:002003-10-31T08:05:01.920-08:00I ate a pomegranate last night. I like pomegranates because they're more of a hobby than a fruit. I like to peel them carefully and separate them into big perfect jewel-encrusted chunks, losing as few individual pomegranate seeds as possible. Usually I have to rush the job because I'm sharing with my wife, but last night she had already had a pomegranate earlier in the day so I was free to Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1067549212782268472003-10-30T13:26:00.000-08:002003-10-30T13:27:12.840-08:00OK, even Michael's blog has been outperforming mine the past couple of days. I need to make amends. But how? I could write some technical stuff about how to do printing in Windows (I forget every time I need to write code that prints, and have to relearn; the key is that the ::PrintDialog() API and/or CPrintDialog MFC classes do way more than you'd expect them to) but that topic might bore myScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1067270915137082102003-10-27T08:08:00.000-08:002003-10-27T08:08:34.730-08:00I suppose I promised to offer a review of Quicksilver when I finished it. It pretty much sucked. I think I only completed the last few hundred pages because of some misguided stubbornness. That's my review.
Jak II manages to get better and better as it gets harder and harder.
Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1067010245738426462003-10-24T08:44:00.000-07:002003-10-24T08:44:05.206-07:00Amazon's offering an intriguing new feature. They're calling it Search Inside the Book. The upshot of it is that their search mechanism now includes full-text searching of a lot of books. They also have complete image scans of these searchable books, so you can see a picture of the page that includes your search text.
There's a bunch of caveats: They seem to be keeping to themselves how manyScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1066923730234567552003-10-23T08:42:00.000-07:002003-10-23T08:42:09.820-07:00Do you think there will ever be one standard format for static RAM memory doo-dads? (SD RAM, Memory Stick, etc?) Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1066749975306152212003-10-21T08:26:00.000-07:002003-10-21T08:26:15.233-07:00I am currently:
Reading Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. I want to finish it before I comment on it, but I'll mention one thing: the book would immediately be twice as good without the author's photo on the back of the dustjacket. I immediately had to discard the dustjacket. I wish I could find a copy of this image to link to. It's the worst thing ever.
Playing Jak II, the sequel to Jak and Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1066426681480974652003-10-17T14:38:00.000-07:002003-10-17T14:38:17.110-07:00I'm setting myself up for a big letdown by getting excited about next month's movie, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. For those of you living in a hole, this is an Aubrey-Maturin movie. Although from the ads, it's a lot more Aubrey than Maturin. Plus, Maturin is being played by someone entirely innapropriate. Ah, it's all doomed to suck, who am I fooling?
But I hope it Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1066256923120902802003-10-15T15:28:00.000-07:002003-10-15T15:28:42.870-07:00Nothing could be lamer than a blog linking to a newspaper article just to mock the headline. So brace yourself for Poll Suggests Catholics Admire Pope!Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1066240022486333552003-10-15T10:47:00.000-07:002003-10-15T10:56:17.990-07:00Time for another sausage cookout, and with it another round of ridicule. Found this on my door this morning.
Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1066068814951675932003-10-13T11:13:00.000-07:002003-10-13T11:13:34.866-07:00Update: SunnComm won't sue the grad student. To quote SunnComm's leader: "It had to do with reviewing a rabbit when we invented the duck and saying the rabbit didn't work right.' " Uhh...Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1066060497648518262003-10-13T08:54:00.000-07:002003-10-13T09:01:37.086-07:00My big thing this weekend was to attempt to make striped ravioli. I've made fresh pasta quite a few times, but never ravioli. Now I know why - it's exhausting. Although producing the ravioli with stripes certainly contributes to that. How do you make striped ravioli? Here's how I did it.
Three balls of pasta dough, one of them spinach-green. Believe it or not, I use the recipe from the Joy Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1065736903664191212003-10-09T15:01:00.000-07:002003-10-09T15:05:16.083-07:00So there's a company called SunnComm (don't bother visiting - it's a crappy Flash-based site) that makes a technology to copy-protect music CDs.
The way they do this is by putting some auto-run program on the CDs. These programs get launched when the disc is inserted into the CD-ROM drives of a machine running one of several flavors of Windows or the Mac OS. Once launched, these programs Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1065716401457488142003-10-09T09:20:00.000-07:002003-10-09T09:26:12.706-07:00BlogSpot abuse lesson one: Circumvent the fact that BlogSpot doesn't give me storage space for bitmaps by simulating bitmaps with HTML tables. This also may serve adequately as a geek test. If you are in any way amused by this exercise, you are probably a geek. Congratulations.
Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1065647006264207092003-10-08T14:03:00.000-07:002003-10-09T15:06:42.626-07:00Remember when I wanted to query a database for rows from a table where the contents of a (text) column contains a certain word? That entry was clearly a cry for help. Nobody helped me, though. Today I present solution 1.1: SELECT * FROM table WHERE ' '+col+' ' LIKE '% cat %'
Works fine for SQL Server... haven't tested Oracle yet.
(Followup): It works in Oracle except they use || as the stringScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1065626531404734692003-10-08T08:22:00.000-07:002003-10-08T08:22:11.240-07:00Today Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California. That's OK, I don't live in California. I continue to take great comfort in believing he can't be elected President of the United States.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1065626304532817542003-10-08T08:18:00.000-07:002003-10-08T08:18:24.416-07:00Perhaps you recall my recent perplexity at the existence of the "backtick" key. Here's a nice report from The Straight Dope on the meaning and use of various pointless keys on the IBM-style keyboards. It starts off tackling the Scroll Lock key, then hits SysRq, Pause/Break, the backtick, and the vertical bar.
Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1065551818466683282003-10-07T11:36:00.000-07:002003-10-07T12:51:18.313-07:00Software Patents Will Kill Us AllSee here for one article on this story.
So in August, Microsoft lost a patent lawsuit regarding plug-ins within Internet Explorer. They had to pay an "Intellectual Property company", Eolas, $521 million dollars. Normally I would ignore this or be vaguely happy.
But that $521 million isn't the end of the story. In order to get future versions of ie out of Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1065126583019651792003-10-02T13:29:00.000-07:002003-10-02T13:29:42.773-07:00There's an awkwardly crafted short story written by Free Software's radical spokesman, Richard Stallman. You should read it now.
It's not great writing, but it makes up for it in brevity and in an impressively accurate foretelling of the loss of computer freedoms that seems to be already underway.
I'm not the first to say that the problem of Intellectual Property in a connected digital world Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1064958486218673632003-09-30T14:48:00.000-07:002003-09-30T14:48:05.733-07:00Finished Tony Horwitz's Blue Latitudes last night. As the back-cover blurbs go to great pains to explain, it's part Pacific travelogue and part a historical biography of Captain James Cook. Don't let that put you off - it's a very good book. Much deeper and more interesting in its own way than I was expecting. Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1064619990750177012003-09-26T16:46:00.000-07:002003-09-26T16:48:31.070-07:00Went golfing with Michael during lunch today. Our usual course - Sandelie West - is a pretty easy 9 hole affair, with two major things going for it - it's unpopular and cheap. (Make your own joke here.) I tied my personal best today.
Hole123456789Par44345444436My Score45458455545
Two pars, one triple, and the rest bogies. Color me happy.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1064588989778657372003-09-26T08:09:00.000-07:002003-09-26T08:09:49.786-07:00Press Any Key To Continue.
Any Questions?Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1064338642880095782003-09-23T10:37:00.000-07:002003-09-23T10:37:22.476-07:00So, I'm reading a Perl book, tring to learn something new "just for fun." And I come across this section where it talks about quoting with "backticks" to launch a shell command. And they show me what backticks looklike: `like these`. And I think to myself "Now that's weird. I wonder how you even type those." Apparently I'm not the first to wonder, because the book goes on to say that it's Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1064249386305114742003-09-22T09:49:00.000-07:002003-09-23T07:47:44.343-07:00Sunday I got Simon and Garfunkel tickets in the "fan club presale." (More like a general internet presale, really - you just had to go glance at the www.simonandgarfunkel.com web page to get the password.) When I told John this, he looked at me like I was loony for a moment, then started to sing a little of "Your Kiss is on My List."
He didn't seem too impressed when I informed him that HallScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063992304931710872003-09-19T10:25:00.000-07:002003-09-19T10:25:04.703-07:00Now for some non-fictional news. Verisign has turned evil, it seems. The company - which among its other businesses has at some point won the responsibility for administering the .com and .net top-level internet domains - is as of now sending all unrecognized URLs (typos, basically) to their own page. See The Register's Article for more details. Go ahead and browse to some nonsense site like Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063990402481440222003-09-19T09:53:00.000-07:002003-09-19T09:53:21.886-07:00Pirate Log, Nineteen September 2003:
My shipmates arrrr stubburn swabbies, a parcel of scurvy lubbers who may never appreciate the rum-swigging pleasures of talking like a pirate. Avast!Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063938966887443092003-09-18T19:27:00.000-07:002003-09-18T19:36:06.520-07:00A bit of original fiction:
US Exhausts Pharmaceutical Names
Sept. 19, 2003 (Washington, DC) - With yesterday's finalization of "Pivuqueev" as a registered trademark of Bristol-Meyers, the US has exhausted its once-plentiful supply of prescription drug names.
Plans to avert the current crisis are being explored by a coalition of drugmakers. Four main schemes dominate the discussions: longer Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063928325913620372003-09-18T16:38:00.000-07:002003-09-18T16:38:45.530-07:00It's incumbent upon me to remind you that tomorrow is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. This is important.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063897446914216922003-09-18T08:04:00.000-07:002003-09-18T08:04:07.016-07:00I was out sick yesterday and the day before. Just a cold, I guess. People at work make fun of me for how often I'm sick - and I guess it's their right to, since as far as I can tell they are some kind of never-get-sick androids sent from the future to mock my fragility. Bastards.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063651151418785532003-09-15T11:39:00.000-07:002003-09-15T13:47:51.166-07:00On Saturday, Wife and I went to the newest Krispy Kreme in town - the one in Beaverton. We went at about 6:30 pm, and the place was busy, sure, but there was no real line to speak of. We were in and out in a minute or two. As I suspected, this seriously reduced the amount of fun I had going to Krispy Kreme. Instead of an experience, it was just some doughnuts. Maybe I need treatment for my Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063406140946115492003-09-12T15:35:00.000-07:002003-09-12T15:37:26.593-07:00Remember when I set the dumpster on fire? Here's a picture where you can see the fire engine in the distance.
Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063399805649842042003-09-12T13:50:00.000-07:002003-09-12T13:50:05.680-07:00I lent Michael my Blogger template. In case you were wondering at the current eerie similarity.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063323820433535312003-09-11T16:43:00.000-07:002003-09-11T16:43:40.383-07:00Here it is, Michael's Blog. It's called How Swede it is. Ah ha ha ha ha.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063319941740904472003-09-11T15:39:00.000-07:002003-09-11T15:39:01.693-07:00Michael noticed I had the Googlebar's "Blog This" button enabled and I was trapped into showing him what Blogger and BlogSpot did. He didn't seem impressed, but it must be growing on him, because now he's almost committed to starting his own Blog - so as to be as cool as me, or so he says. His main idea for the blog is to highlight his dangerous sociopathic tendencies (I'm paraphrasing here) Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063229583049898922003-09-10T14:33:00.000-07:002003-09-10T14:33:03.013-07:00Of course, explaining this to the suckers who are currently paying for Blogger Pro is a little touchy. Here's Pyra's email to the suckers. The good news is, they will give you a pro-rated refund - so they're playing fair. The bad news is, the letter hides that fact as much as possible, instead touting the two unique features remaining to Blogger pro (RSS and post-by-email), the supposed Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063229222235952872003-09-10T14:27:00.000-07:002003-09-10T14:27:02.223-07:00Ah, here's Pyra's announcement.They don't say as much, but this is really just eliminating the non-pro Blogger, and giving everyone Blogger Pro for free. Which makes sense - having a business model where they charged extra for Blogger Pro or for BlogSpot Plus might make sense, but making you pay extra for both was very off-putting.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063228971586594642003-09-10T14:22:00.000-07:002003-09-10T14:22:51.590-07:00What the heck is this? Suddenly Blogger is showing me the Blogger Pro UI. Ooooh, I can Spell Check. (Amazingly, the Blogger spellchecker doesn't recognize the word "Blogger.") (Or "spellchecker," but I suppose that might not really be a word.)Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063133331696428102003-09-09T11:48:00.000-07:002003-09-09T11:48:51.583-07:00Normally I try to avoid the typical blogging practice of simply linking to a page I saw linked to from another blog. However in this case I'll make an exception. Thanks to Dave Barry's Blog for this one. Do they need nested roundabouts connected by baby ones, or is it just something the English build for fun?Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1063121188023883832003-09-09T08:26:00.000-07:002003-09-09T08:26:28.080-07:00I went to Eugene on Sunday to visit Mom and to discuss our issues. I guess it went OK. I rode a bike while I was there. I still knew how, but only barely.
The weather has turned rainy these last few days. For which I say, "thank god." I hate hate hate watering the shrubs. And the rain feels all cozy and nice for the moment.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1062710750346579572003-09-04T14:25:00.000-07:002003-09-04T14:25:50.360-07:00Let's say you want to query a database for rows from a table where the contents of a (text) column contains a certain word. So, if you're searching for "cat", you want to match rows that are like "cat", "cat on a hot tin roof", or "the big cat said meow". Equally importantly for this hypothetical situation, you don't want to match "category" or "scatterbrained". Can it be done using SQL's LIKEScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1062624537369036822003-09-03T14:28:00.000-07:002003-09-04T14:15:28.390-07:00Update on my earlier-mentioned woes:
Nobody's mentioned the dumpster fire except Michael, who wasn't really cruel about it.
Wife's arthritis was much improved yesterday. Yay!
Took the car to the mechanic. (Pacific Car Care, Barbur Blvd in Portland.) A brake they installed a while ago had a feed line leak, or something like that, which was why my brake fluid was low. That's being fixed underScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1062604848076440912003-09-03T09:00:00.000-07:002003-09-03T09:00:48.000-07:00Some language pet peeves are so intense that it becomes a pleasure to seize upon them and ridicule the infraction committer. So it is with me and the misuse of the word "literally." For instance, I still relish the time when an email went around the company talking about a new hire and how she "literally hit the ground running." Yes! Paratrooper marketing!Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1062522061294364472003-09-02T10:01:00.000-07:002003-09-02T10:01:01.136-07:00I don't believe in shammery like biorhythms, but if I did, I must be at a low point. Many things are going wrong:
- Setting the dumpster afire still looms over my head
- Wife's arthritis is this close to crippling her this week
- Mom has lost it, gone over the deep end, and blames me for not being a devoted enough son
- Car's "Brakes" idiot light has come on
- When I got to work this morning Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1062355579695912502003-08-31T11:46:00.000-07:002003-08-31T11:46:19.736-07:00Once in a while we like to have a sausage bbq at work. The guy who always grilled 'em left a while ago. I volunteered for the job. Grilling sausage is easy, right?
Right. But after it was done, I tossed the coals into the dumpster and - hee hee - it seems that can start a fire. The fire truck came to put it out. I will never, ever live this down at work. I am a very stupid person.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1062110093375556562003-08-28T15:34:00.000-07:002003-08-28T15:34:53.360-07:00I got an account with mailblocks.com today, mostly because they seem to be implementing a spam-blocking challenge/response system almost exactly the way I imagined it should work.
Embarassing story, actually: a few months ago I got really excited when I "thought up the idea" for challenge-response systems like this for spam blocking. (Including the idea of having throw-away accounts for dealingScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1062103155917447092003-08-28T13:39:00.000-07:002003-08-28T13:39:15.950-07:00Corel Acquisition by Vector Now Complete. There ya go. Bastards.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1062089910695931252003-08-28T09:58:00.000-07:002003-08-28T09:58:30.556-07:00Hmmph. Oracle throwing that error seems fairly reasonable. I'm trying to Delete from or add to a table, and one of my clauses figuring out what to delete or add calls a user function which refers to the contents of that table to determine its results. So things are, at best, rather nondeterministic. SQL Server doesn't seem to mind, but I suppose I'm actually kind of glad Oracle pointed out Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1062087537052576672003-08-28T09:18:00.000-07:002003-08-28T09:18:57.096-07:00Oracle Error of the day:
"Table FOO is mutating, trigger/function may not see it."
Mutating! Should I call in Professor Xavier for consultation? Maybe my table will get a really cool power, like "supercolumns" or something. More as it develops.
(By the way, I'm not using any triggers, but the query triggering the error does in fact involve a user-defined function, so this error probably Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1062023441561333532003-08-27T15:30:00.000-07:002003-08-27T15:30:41.620-07:00Yesterday I received in the mail three DVD collections: The Simpsons Season 3 (yes, I already have 1 and 2) and Futurama Seasons 1 and 2. Normally I'd say collecting DVDs for a TV show is a sucker's game, but every good geek knows that The Simpsons and Futurama deserve constant rewatching. We watched three of the Futurama episodes (the first two and the first Xmas episode - my favorite.) ThenScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1061834015189351482003-08-25T10:53:00.000-07:002003-08-25T10:53:35.053-07:00I cleaned a little more on Sunday. Kitchen: clean. Coffee table: not bad. End table: Spotless. Dining room table: Spotless. This is pretty good for us. I have faint dreams of a clean bedroom. Wife's clothing collections have been grouwing into full-blown stalagmites, though, so I'm not optimistic.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1061674920536358572003-08-23T14:42:00.000-07:002003-08-23T14:42:00.456-07:00A major housecleaning always sounds so simple in your mind. Like some sort of phage, I'm going to tear through the house from one end to the other, leaving a path of wholesome sterility and uncluttered flat surfaces in my wake.
I started in the kitchen. That went well enough. Into the small dining area next. OK, I was starting to accumulate a pile of displaced items, refugee debris with no Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1061503431564264222003-08-21T15:03:00.000-07:002003-08-21T15:03:51.500-07:00The company I work for is mere days away from being wholly owned by These Seven People. The shareholders voted for it yesterday and it's being rubber-stamped by a Canadian Court today.
I guess it's a good thing. It could be a good thing. I don't feel like it's a good thing.
I'd feel a lot more confident about it being a good thing if our senior management were kicking and screaming against Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1061334658916146292003-08-19T16:10:00.000-07:002003-08-19T16:10:58.990-07:00While I'm on the subject of things not to do, never user MFC's DoDataExchange() / UpdateData() / DDX_XXX stuff. (I need not even mention the horrors of DDV_XXX, do I?) We're all goaded into this awful mechanism by MFC's wizards, and all it ever does is create really bad spaghetti code in the end. Replace the pile of crap with the following techniques:
Have an OnInitDialog() function which Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1061333723372721892003-08-19T15:55:00.000-07:002003-08-19T15:55:23.253-07:00Do not ever, ever attempt to write professional software in VBA. Preferably not in VB either, but I'm willing to let that one slide in some circumstances.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1061172960236984242003-08-17T19:16:00.000-07:002003-08-17T19:16:36.540-07:00Yesterday, Boy and I went to Oregon's first Krispy Kreme store. It's a few blocks north of Clackamas Town center, in that area of town some might call "Hell, but with worse traffic." This was my first Krispy Kreme experience. (Not Boy's though.) This Krispy Kreme is said to have broken all previous store records.
The line took 24 minutes - not too bad I suppose, as long as you looked upon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1061069927563046692003-08-16T14:38:00.000-07:002003-08-16T14:38:47.596-07:00My wife is a QVC addict. What disturbs me about QVC is that when they're selling something I understand - cooking supplies and computers - I can tell they're generally ripping you off. So I have a hard time imagining that isn't also true for the things I don't understand - jewelry and clothing.
Case in point and the reason I'm bringing it up: today's "Today's Special Value" is a laptop from Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060960458164656502003-08-15T08:14:00.000-07:002003-08-15T08:20:51.003-07:00So Wil Wheaton's had me thinking about how few times I've ever come in contact with celebrities. In fact, other than attending scheduled performances or appearances of one kind or another, I can only think of one time in my life.
The year: 1991. The place: a movie theater in Manhattan. The occasion: Seeing Defending Your Life with my Grandma. The celebrity: Penn, of Penn and Teller. He's Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060959663108186022003-08-15T08:01:00.000-07:002003-08-15T08:05:24.066-07:00So I guess the power's out in Ottawa. Which you might think wouldn't affect me since I live in Oregon. Ha! Your ignorance is my bliss. I actually work for a company dumb enough to have us using a mail server on the other side of the continent.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060883444304012532003-08-14T10:50:00.000-07:002003-08-14T10:55:16.720-07:00John called me a geek because I went to see Wil Wheaton. I have obviously been acting way too cool around him if he thought that calling me a geek was some sort of insult.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060873700991632392003-08-14T08:08:00.000-07:002003-08-14T08:12:54.956-07:00A picture of Will Wheaton at Powell's. Sure, who cares, right? But the important part of this picture is that right under the book he's holding, in the gray and yellowish shirts, are me and my wife. If we'd planned that photo, we couldn't have had out heads cut off by the book any nicer!Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060873379244581522003-08-14T08:02:00.000-07:002003-08-14T08:07:33.270-07:00Last night my wife and I went to the Beaverton Powell's to see the Patron Saint of Blogging - Wil Wheaton. He was doing a book reading and signing. The reading was good, but the mob was too big for us to wait and have a book signed.
Back when it first aired, I fell in with some Trekkies/ers and became a huge fan of Next Generation. Wesely, of course, I hated. Also Troi and Beverly Crusher. Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060812573540915142003-08-13T15:09:00.000-07:002003-08-13T15:15:28.613-07:00That recipe of mine, turns out, isn't vichyssoise. Vichyssoise' got leeks, not onions, and you don't carmelize them. Also, it's usually served smooth and chilled. Here's Julia's recipe. I think I'd describe mine as a marriage of vichyssoise and french onion soup.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060791352481389272003-08-13T09:15:00.000-07:002003-08-13T09:20:38.956-07:00My internal laptop debates continue. I'm almost willing to dump my Windows XP requirement and get a Mac. But then I find out that they don't make a Google Toolbar for the Mac version of ie. Now I'm sure Apple's new Safari browser is all that, but I like what I like. And I like ie with the Google toolbar.
Aside: ie's been getting a lot of flack lately for being mired back in the 20th century Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060710224137384612003-08-12T10:43:00.000-07:002003-08-18T15:50:35.533-07:00Brilliant.Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060704646690073192003-08-12T09:10:00.000-07:002003-08-12T09:11:23.296-07:00I like cooking, and I'm pretty good at it, most of the time. But those forced to eat my food sometimes seem a little concerned by my utter disdain for recipes. Sure, I subscribe to and read Cook's Illustrated religiously and try out a good number of recipies too, but it's far more exciting to fly blind. That way you don't have to share the credit if something comes out good.
With that in mindScotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060643429716469712003-08-11T16:10:00.000-07:002003-08-11T17:01:28.150-07:00I've started hankering for something I've never before had a hanker for before: a laptop computer. (Bet you were thinking it was a piece of cheese.) Let's see, a wish list:
- Under $1500
- Under 7 lbs
- Over 14 inch screen
- Windows XP
- Built-in wireless networking
- 20 gig drive, 256 or 512 MB RAM
- No chintzy looking speakers. I'd rather not see the speakers. If it only had a headphone Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5608033.post-1060619791374837442003-08-11T09:36:00.000-07:002003-08-11T16:04:42.016-07:00Earlier I asked where I got the fool notion of taking a Baltic cruise. I just remembered the answer to that question. Patrick O'Brian's The Surgeon's Mate. One of the best in the Aubrey-Maturin canon, in my opinion. Then again, I'd say the same for at least five of the others: Post Captain, HMS Surprise, Desolation Island, The Fortune of War, and The Letter of Marque. So if we only look at Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12030805891369068121noreply@blogger.com