July 2004

Gateway tablet PC

July 30, 2004

This is my first post from a Gateway tablet PC that I'm testing at work. It seems pretty cool. Of course it uses Windows XP instead of a great operating system, but it seems pretty good. Now I'll have to try the tablet features too.

Hope and Optimism in Boston

July 28, 2004

Michael Byron, a candidate for California's House District 49 writes from the Democratic National Convention about the restrictions on those who would protest the convention. Both conventions have been declared "National Security Events"Protest is a fundamental right enshrined in Article I of our Constitution. (A note that this should really read "the First Amendment to our constitution", Article 1 has to do with the structure of Congress not the freedom of assembly and speech.)

What will be the lesson of the DNC bloggers?

July 27, 2004

Michael Markman, a longtime reader of this site, writes: "It looks like the bloggers at the convention have very little to say except, 'Look! we're blogging at the convention. I just got credentials." I respond: It's just the second day, and the first convention. Of course the first comments are going to be It works! And maybe that's all there is to it. We'll find out. You can't hurry love. - Dave Winer, Scripting News

Dave Winer was interviewed this morning on National Public Radio about being at the Democratic National Convention as one of the bloggers with credentials. I was excited to get in and read what he had to say about Clinton's speech last night. There are many things we see eye-to-eye on and some we do not. Winer has been quite critical of Clinton on his Scripting.com weblog. I was curious to hear what the experience of someone like Winer would be while seeing someone reputed to have such a powerful presence would be.

Xserves/Xraids

July 26, 2004

Started unpacking the G5 Xserves today and their Xraids. There is documentation that implies the raid controllers fail over but it appears they do not. So, we have more controllers than necessary as the raids are only half loaded.... Also I'm not sure what Apple was thinking with the "key" on the front of these boxes. If you haven't seen it the "key" is a small hex bolt. I guess it is for securing against people who lack tool bags. Better setup a Swiss Army checkpoint at the door to the server room.

Multi-piece masts

July 26, 2004

I was given a great idea when I needed to put in a mast for the satellite internet transmitter. The mast, which needs to be made from schedule 40 2-inch galvanized pipe, is a massive 10 feet tall. To make it easier to handle we cut it into several pieces. That was a great idea until it came time that the satellite dish was mounted to the top, serving as a sail as well the dish has done a better job of tightening and loosening the threads than we ever hoped to. It turned out that we weren't able to use the nifty t-joints we'd put in to run the cable as we'd hoped. Note to self, next time

Wasted Water

July 23, 2004

An amazing story out of Denver today. It seems for the last decade Denver Water has been running a 4-inch fire hydrant at full flow into the sewer. That's right, while Denver has been suffering through dry year after dry year each week more than 3 million gallons of treated, potable water are going down the drain. The article says that Denver Water hasn't been able to find anybody who could use the water.

I'd suggest they need to replace the folks running Denver Water with some who are slightly better at their jobs. In a market where water is a scarce commodity they can't find anybody who wants the 1.5 billion gallons of water they've sent down the drain. Let's see it only took a few seconds of reading the article to come up with several workable solutions.

Discourse

July 22, 2004

I had a great lunch yesterday with a couple of Senator Reid's staffers. We met to talk about a great program - Nevada Boys' State. It's a program I participated in while in high school and was a counselor for the next year. I look forward to getting back involved with a great program. We also had a great discussion of issues that we don't see eye to eye on. For example we discussed the LIncoln County Development Act of 2004 which the Senator co-sponsored. It reminds me though, why I choose to go back to work in education. It is refreshing to be in an institution where open discourse and debate can occur without people walking away hurt afterwards.

Hal Foss Award

July 22, 2004

Congratulations, belatedly, to a friend of mine Cheryl Kennedy. Cheryl was the recipient of this year's Hal Foss award, given by the National Association of Search and Rescue. According to their website the award "is the most prestigious award presented by NASAR." A life member of Larimer County Search and Rescue and substantial contributor to the Larimer County Sheriff's Support Team, Cheryl has been extremely dedicated to the furthering of search and rescue in northern Colorado and across the country. I have many fond memories

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