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Sunday, November 28, 2004

Busy Time

Stardate 58112.8 (11-28-2004)
Yeah, yeah. It's been exactly twenty days since the last entry. There have been a number of reasons. The first is that I decided the process has become complex and time consuming, so I am changing it. From the user point of view nothing will change. The way it used to work is that I would type an entry, update the welcome page, update the menu to refer to the new entry, update the RSS feed, and possibly update the Updates page. Each new entry requires cutting and pasting of formatting code. I did fix the need to update the menu. The problem was that it didn't like not having a file name passed to it, because I was initializing a variable to an empty string instead of undefined. Then I changed the script to sort the list of entries from lowest to highest, and if a specific file is not passed to the script, it loads the last one from the list. (Using a stardate as the name helps with sorting, as standard date formats require more complex sort algorithms.) Now there is no need to update the menu unless I add an item to it. The welcome page is a little more complicated, since there are a few elements mixed in that get changed. The plan is to put a PHP script in it, which will read from the updates file, and grab the first ten items.  The favorites list is also a trick, but I also have an idea about how to get it working.

Another issue with this is that I could only update from my desktop. When I get home from work, more and more often I don't want to head to the basement and get back on the computer. I do have some free time at work, so doing log entries from the web makes more sense. I am still working on this one.
Next, I installed Firefox. I like the tabs, especially the fact I can set the Home page to multiple tabs. It also has RSS integrated. The problem here is that it does not recognize mine. I am still working on why. This has slowed the web based log entry, since I want that page to update the feed for each new entry. Perl has a module to build RSS files. I have all the old entries converted. I have not yet abandoned IE, because there are a couple of areas where Firefox does not work yet. The Real video segments on the Amazing Race pages are one. It won't let me select anything but the pre-race interviews. 

Another reason is that I have been sick on and off for the last few weeks. Nothing much, just a stuffy head or sore throat. It does exhaust me, though. 
Yet another reason is that work has been busy. We have a few new clients, so that means some custom work to do. Because of this, the number of issues is at an all time high. Last Monday was reorganization again. The guy who was assisting me is now my boss. I don't mind that. I didn't go for the job, because it would be in conflict with my goal of putting my family first. The last guy who had it described it as going to one meeting and getting beat up about one issue, then going to the next to get beat up about something else. When I am put under that type of stress I tend to get short with my wife and kids, and regret it. I do wonder, however, if this is the right thing to do. You're supposed to climb the corporate ladder, right? I read a long time ago that software developers who did not were eventually left behind by new technology and younger employees. That does worry me.

The reorg did upset me. I had a number of conversations with the last guy about doing web work, and he kept telling me everyone on the team would get to do it. The reorg split the web developers into their own group, so my chances of doing anything with the web are zero. I did go to the head of the group to ask to be considered for any open positions. It's worth a shot.

Today I am 40 years old. I had thought about doing a bit about things I have learned, or some sort of retrospective. The past, however, is done. I see no point in rehashing it. The flaws I see in myself in years past are still there. I don't see making any changes that would cure them. I don't have a desire for a two seat sports car, or quitting my job and taking off to the tropics, or any other dramatic change. I am the same as I was.

Which, to be honest with myself, is where I have always wanted to be.

End of Entry

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Visual Studio Express, The Incredibles

Stardate 58110.8 (11-08-2004)
Being able to program a computer has advantages. I have been entering data into a database for some research I am doing. In the last three weeks, I managed to get a quarter of the way through gathering it off the web. I decided this was taking much too long, so I put a webbot together to grab the pages I needed. This took all of fifteen minutes. Another two hours was needed to find the common elements of the data I wanted, and have the bot sift for them. In less than 10 minutes it had gathered the other three quarters of the info, and updated the database. The effort was quick and dirty, and could have been done better (using regular expressions to do the parsing, and automatic updating of the pages to retrieve are a couple of things that come to mind). However, it saved a lot of time and effort in entering the data by hand.

This was my first serious foray with Visual Studio C# Express. The environment is not bad, but I am annoyed that the key mappings for things like compiling and going to errors are different from the C++ edition. I also tried to have it generate the database update statements, which it claimed it did, but I could not find where it put them. It’s a beta product, so I am not sure if this is a bug, or just ignorance on my part. I am thinking the latter.

The family went to see The Incredibles Friday. It was an ok movie; something of a mix of James Bond, the movies where the guy is looking everywhere but his family for fulfillment (sorry, can’t think of any titles), and various superhero movies. Pixar was of course impressive with the animation. Some of the social commentary was unusual for animated films (“When everybody is special, no one will be”). I found myself wondering when it would be over, so it was not that compelling. The kids loved it.

The string of daily entries came to an end Friday as well. There are just too many other things going on to keep it up.

End of Entry

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Mulan DVD

Stardate 58110.4 (11-04-2004)
We purchased the Mulan Special Edition DVD. Mulan is my favorite Disney movie. It came out when Rachel was 2 ½. She had been to a few movies before, but this one stuck with her for a long time. She saw it four times in the theatre. The second time I took her by myself. I can still picture the night. We went on a Friday night. Rachel had been looking forward to it for the whole week. At the movie, she told me not to be scared, but the bad guy was coming. I must have acted out scenes with her for the next six months. I have to admit, I still love the scene of the Hun army coming over the pass. I still laugh at parts.

The special edition had a few deleted scenes, and some music videos. It does have a trailer for Mulan II, which is due out in 2005. The other extras seem to point out that they creators had a hard time with the beginning. They had five, but I liked the one they ended up with. The videos included a version of “Make a Man Out of You” sung by Jackie Chan in Chinese as he swings a quarterstaff around. Not really interesting.

End of Entry

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Rome: Total War

Stardate 58110.3 (11-03-2004)
Rome: Total War, the demo version, was loaded tonight. The interface took a little getting used to, but it seems to be a good game. All you can do in the demo is a tutorial, and the Battle of Trebia. This is supposed to be an easy battle, but I found it a little intimidating due to the number of units you need to control. You get to be Hannibal in his second meet up with the Romans. All in all this looks to be a fun game. 

This is the game engine used in for the battle scenes in Decisive Battles. I am a little miffed that this was moved off of Sunday at 9 PM to Friday at 7 PM. One of the great mysteries of life is why every show I want to watch comes on at the same time. In this case we have the aforementioned Decisive Battles, Joan of Arcadia, and Star Trek: Enterprise. And it's not like I watch that many. Dish Network came out with a built in recorder for their satellite receivers this year. It seems like a good idea except that they only record one show at a time. That doesn't help me.

They are coming out with a new version of Pirates! this month. I used to play the old version on the Amiga computer when it came out in the mid 80’s. The basic idea is still there, but they have updated the graphics and game play. The site does not have a demo, which makes me a little upset. I'd like to try the game out. 

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Voting

Stardate 58110.2 (11-02-2004)
Following the election returns on MSN, I found this paragraph:
"All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a 227-205 edge over the Republicans, with one Democratic-leaning independent and two vacancies in Republican-held seats, also were up for election."
I had to read this three times before I started to laugh. Are the Democrats now in such a minority that the Republicans need to divide themselves? In the rush to get news out, I guess they missed correcting this.

Patrick caught strep, so I stayed home today. This is getting to be a trend. I didn't get over to vote until 6 PM. I had planned on waiting a while, but when I got there, the district I was in had no one there. The other district had a line out the door. I took the boys with me as Rachel had a soccer game. We were in and out in 8 minutes. Thomas ask me when I was going to vote as we left. I chuckled and told him that was it, I was done. I've since found out that locally, almost nothing I voted on went the way I voted. Amendment 1 was the only one that passed I voted for. I did vote for the incumbent for House of Representatives. Strange, though, I didn't used to have such a liberal outlook.

End of Entry 

Monday, November 01, 2004

Predictions

Stardate 58110.1 (11-01-2004)
Predicting the future is favorite pastime for a lot of people. Nostradamus, Edgar Casey, and many other people are famous for it. Science fiction is partly based on this, and especially predicting changing in technology. I am always reminded of a commercial that aired in 2000. It starred Avery Brooks, and it started with him saying, “It’s the year 2000. Where are the flying cars? I was PROMISED flying cars!” This little collection from John Elfreth Watkins in 1900 was fun to read. My grandfather, who worked on the railroad his whole life, supposedly echoed prediction #7. Sadly, he did live to see air travel supplant rail travel. Some of the predictions that looked good thankfully did not come to pass. 

Prediction #11 sort of hit me as naïve. Fish, birds, and other animals consume mosquitoes and flies. Without them, the ecology as we know it would collapse. The main concern with them is that they spread disease. That is the problem I think he was trying to address.  

I am not any better. I would have thought that telecommuting would have been much bigger than it is, and I thought the World Wide Web was a pretty neat idea, but I had no clue it would be as successful as it was.

There are a couple of urban legends going around about the Presidential election. One is that if the Washington Redskins lose at home, the incumbent will also lose. The Redskins lost this weekend. The other is that because the Boston Red Sox won the World Series and the Democratic National Convention was held in Boston, it means John Kerry will win. Urban Legends has another tongue in cheek page about this.  

This week will probably tell.

End of Entry