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Well, now I know how that feels.  Sat at home for a while next to the phone, and then realized that the damned thing won't ring itself, so I started making and returning calls.  So far, the score is one interview scheduled for tomorrow morning, 9 am.  I'm also not thrilled so far with the "healthy" breakfast.  While the Quaker instant cinnamon roll oatmeal is good (even plain, says the man who typically puts three large scoops of sugar on pre-sweetened cereals), the coconut cream pie Dannon Lite yogurt sucks.  Perhaps it's nerves, but that's just too much acid for my system to handle.

I see where Mr. Thompson is getting ready to commit to Linux.  My former PHB would insist that there's another platform that's available to you - Macintosh.  Now, while the PHB is right, you have got to know some of the fallacies about the Mac platform...

• Get used to sucky software.  In my experience, you have three or four options for getting from point A to B on a Mac.  This means you have a relatively GOOD package, a mostly MEDIOCRE package, and one that just stinks.  Bad.  PCs, on the other hand, usually have about twenty different options.
• Macs are certainly cheaper to support - most Mac problems are solved by restarting.  After that, there's a couple of things to try.  Forthwith, my troubleshooting chart :

  
  

  1. Quit and restart the application
  2. Quit and restart the computer
  3. Restart the computer and rebuild the desktop (hold down the Option/Apple keys on boot, wait for the "do you want to rebuild" message - answer YES!)
  4. Throw out the application preferences (go into the system folder, and find the Preferences folder within it - most applications have a file, a couple of files, or sometimes, their own folder.  Remove the file(s)/folders - restart the computer and start the application.
  5. Run Norton - If the problem hasn't been resolved to this point, you're going to need outside help.  If you love spending money like water, then hire a consultant.  If you just want it to work, get Norton Utilities for Macintosh.  Pay special attention to the version - If you've got an iMac, you need the newest version of Norton to boot some of them.  Run Disk Doctor (it's almost completely automated), and if it finds errors, re-run it.  Keep running it until it tells you "no errors found".
  6. Get a copy of TechTool.  I believe that there are still some basic versions which are free.  Use TT to rebuild your desktop.  TT does it differently from the Option/Apple key combination, in that it deletes the old desktop database - the new one is built in a completely different location.
  7. Re-install the application.  It's possible the App's corrupt.
  8. Re-install the operating system.  It shouldn't overwrite your apps.
  9. Get professional help.

   

• Macs are inherently easier to use, if you're introducing people who do not normally use computers TO computers. If you've got some committed PC users, fuhgedaboudit.

Those that wish to take issue, go right ahead.  Macs do have some wonderfully groundbreaking stuff out there.  When they first came out and leaped upon the desktop publishing craze, it was really a wake-up call.  However, as with all things from Steve Jobs, he likes to start strong, but has no idea how to finish.  I expect that the latest Desktop Video market will go the same way.  Steve Jobs didn't create the desktop video niche any more than he created the desktop publishing bits.  He saw an option, a way to take a technologically advanced operation which would be attractive to a small but growing market segment, and pushed that thing right out there.  iMovie is a wonderful piece of software.  Will Microsoft counter it?  Probably poorly at first, and then, if they stick true to form, they'll produce a wonderful package after four or five versions come out.  

Of course, during all of this putzing around with a free application they're going to attempt to integrate into the operating system to make sure we all can't live without it, they'll continue to ignore the core issues we all have with this giant and unstable house of cards called "Windows" in all it's myriad flavors.  

Truth be told, I can honestly say that when I was running a data center with multiple NT servers, I didn't have to reboot them too often at all.  In fact, I had two computers which were difficult - one was the combination Exchange Server and backup system (oops, my fault), and the other was the system our remote users dialed into for remote control - One disadvantage of a client/server system when in a Wide-Area-Networked environment; if your dial-in clients use 56K dialups, you're stuck.  We countered that strategy two ways - the first was PCAnywhere, which allowed remote users to access a local machine, do the work on that local machine, and keep the data here, and DSL lines, which allowed the other alternative - schlepping large blocks of data from one location to another and back again.  

The rest of those NT computers (and we used NT on all of our PCs, not just the servers) were solid as rocks - we had some hardware issues which were solved by the simple expedient of purchasing better computers.  So I was pretty happy with my NT experience. 

That said, I'm waiting for some promised hardware to arrive - when it does, I've got plans for a Linux box myself.  Someone's got to clobber Microsoft down to size, and treat them like the third-world dictatorship they're trying to be.  You may well be the biggest bully in the schoolyard, but the bottom line is we still have to PAY for your crap - if you get too big for your britches, we'll just cut you back down to size.  I'm going to integrate it into the oddball network I've got here - one Win95 OSR2 box (486/66 DX2 with 32-Megs RAM, 2-gig hard drive, mostly just sitting there as a storage tank), one Win98 SE box (550 Mhz Pentium III, 16.8 Gig HD, 16 Meg video card).  I've got hopes for an iMac sometime soon, along with a DV Camera.  That would be my ideal christmas present, but you know, Santa's been kept pretty busy with the kid's list the last few years.  

Last weekend while in the mall I noticed that B. Dalton had a deal whereby you purchase $X of books, magazines, etc., and you get a free "Captain Underpants" lunchbox.  Mrs. D and I have an occasional ongoing conversation wherein she'll propose some baby name I find objectionable, and I will reply with the (I believe) Murphy-Brown inspired line - "just call the kid 'throw the ball at my head' Dominik, will ya?".  In that same vein, I figure any kid who hops onto a bus with a Capt. Underpants lunchbox is likely to be wearing those self-same underpants on both ends at once - what we used to call an "Atomic Wedgie" and it usually required surgery to remove.  As to the underpants?  Only your eleven-hundred pound uncle (or yard rock) would be able to wear the things.  

I'm still suffering from some unusual oddness on my main machine.  I use Win98 on this one (I know, I know - it's better than the alternative when it comes to old software and kid games), and a couple of weeks ago my Outlook Express started acting like Eudora did on my old 486/66 - I kept it running constantly, because when I dialed in and got on-line, it took almost 2 minutes for Netscrape and Eudora to fire up, connect, and do their initializing things.  So, I reinstalled OE (version 5, not 5.5).  No joy.  Decided to take a whack at reinstalling Windows (since it kept telling me about twice a week "there's a problem with your windows installation, please re-install Windows").  I reinstalled.  It completed the reinstallation, then went into the dread la-la-land when looking for Hardware devices.  I'm telling you, I've seen Vaxes boot quicker than this thing did.  So, I rebooted after a bit, and reinstalled a second time - still no joy.  Rebooted when it hung - still no luck.  Unplugged the USB devices.  Still hung like a dead man.  So, I said - FINE - I'll double check my disks and make sure I've got my init codes, etc., and then reinstall from scratch.  Except for one thing - when I restored everything worked fine.

Except for one thing - I used to get a login inquiry as soon as the machine booted.  Then, the desktop would set up the environment I wanted (I had a second desktop and user set up for my kids, and was planning on a third user for my wife).  The user login doesn't show now until I dial in to my ISP.  I dunno what I did wrong there...  More research, I guess, is required.  Microsoft, here I come...

Well, anyway.  Off to see if I can invent some sort of home gadget everyone needs, some company is willing to produce under license for me and sell great giant volumes of them.  Self-loading toilet paper, perhaps?

Oh, no.  When I was a kid, there were MEN who played football.  Bud Grant, old stone-face, standing on the sidelines at the old Met Stadium, and they never even had HEATERS on the sidelines.  I remember Grant's instructions to those position players who would score - "Don't dance around like a fool, like you've never been there before - it's your JOB to get there."  Now, we have overpaid, dancing fools.

Oh, no, part 2.  This is a different "Oh No" from yesterday's. My first PERSONAL computer was a Vic-20.  It was powerful enough to let me see where this whole thing might go, but not powerful enough for me to get there.  My first "REAL" computer was a VAX.  Specifically, a VAX 11/785 with 24 Megabytes of memory, and two 360 Megabyte hard drives.  That machine powered over 70 remote terminals, and would frequently compile long programs in less time than it takes you to say "Windows 98 Second Edition".  I got my first REAL computer job working on that same VAX, and to this day I'll stick with my definition of the VMS operating system as the best you can get.  Sad to see it go, but then again, anyone who could keep one basic computer architecture going as long as they have MUST know a thing or two about computers.

Other than that, it's just another day in weirdsville. So far, at any rate.  Sounds like the rain that was supposed to show up this evening rolled in a little early...  Off to fiddle with computers, and dishes, and laundry...  And one more piece of good news.  There was a young lady by the name of Katie Poirer who was kidnapped and killed.  The good news is that this bastard will be spending at least a while behind bars for this one.  I firmly believe there is a special form of punishment for people who harm children - while Katie was 19, that's still a child in many ways.  This jerk deserves as much punishment as we can deliver.  I just wish we had a "reasonable" death penalty - harm a child (sexual abuse, extreme physical abuse, or death of a child), and die.  That's reasonable to me.  Don't come blathering at me about the opposition of my Catholic belief system and the death penalty; I know.  However, I'm fully prepared to answer to whatever will come after I die for this one.  While God is supposed to be all-forgiving, if you harm my children, or my wife, or any one else in my family, you deserve death.  That's all there is to it.

Well, now.  Before my 10:30 am doctor's appointment (nothing wrong with me that losing 150 pounds and 20 years won't fix, just the annual poke & prod), I managed to schedule two more interviews for next week.  All on Monday.  Three Monday, and I've got another company desperate to talk to me.  Yikes, I guess this is what it's like to be popular.  I think I'll take some time off before I start the new job, if I can.

Techno-weenie tip of the week...  If you're having problems maintaining a dial-up connection to your ISP, try the patented Dominik trick (okay, no patent, but I came up with it first) - create a batch file...  here's mine...

:head
ping www.my_isp.net
ping www.yahoo.com
ping www.iwon.com
ping www.stupid.com
goto :head

What this thing basically does is say "you there?  Fine" and keeps looping.  I know it takes up a certain amount of bandwidth while constantly pinging, but this seems to keep the signal cleaner than just sitting there checking e-mail every 8 minutes.  Your techno-tip of the week.  BTW: Obviously, replace the "My_ISP" with the name of your ISP, and for those of you who need serious help, let me know.

Hopefully more later.  I've got to get a prescription, the wife, the kids, find out who's in my daughter's first grade class and who her teacher will be (all tonight, of course), and hit the school clothes garage sale yet today...  ugh.

I learned yesterday while at the Farmer's market that my parents lost another massive oak tree this week.  My folk's place is on the Mississippi river, and they've got about 2 acres, with plenty of big old Oak trees.  We had a few elms, and most of them were taken by construction about the same time they started getting dutch elm.  We've tried to diversify, and they've got a maple or two, plus some pines.  This big old tree was in a little garden of lillies of the valley and some other plants, with a stone ring around three huge old trunks.  The one trunk over the neighbor's garage snapped off and clobbered her garage.  

I see elsewhere that Mr. Thompson and Mr. Syroid are furiously engaged in seeking smart folk elsewhere in the universe.  I ran SETI's Mac client for a while when at the old employer's place - it worked Ok for a while but eventually just refused to connect to the server, even when I had the machine connected to a DSL connection to the Internet.  After about three weeks of waiting for it to send the old packet and receive the new stuff, I gave up.  Good luck, fellas.  If my machine was more stable, I'd do it too.  But first, to address the stability issues...

I see elsewhere that Apple's in hot water again.  So what?  This company could perform the classic bait-and-switch with a computer and a toaster oven and their most fanatical buyers will shrug and say "oh, well."  One would think that eventually Steve Jobs would realize that the best way to get people on your side is to promise them great tools - and the fastest way to destroy that good will is by not delivering on promises.  Of course, the fanatics will always stick by him.  But what can you expect?

Looks like I'm going to be deported to Montevideo this weekend for a friend's open house.  Then, the early part of next week will be consumed completely with interviews (so far, Monday's booked with three all over town, and Tuesday's already got one downtown at 8 am.  Busy busy busy).

Should anything interesting happen to me, I'll be sure to keep you posted.  Until then, I'll watch them finish replacing the railing on our deck.  Ah, what fun.

As noted above, we're high-tailing it out of here to head to Montevideo, via a stop at MGM liquor - apparently my friend Kyle has some unholy attachment to "veitzen" (Wheat) beer.  He's a sick man...

I saw on Dr. Pournelle's site that apparently a group of Eagle Scouts were requested to attend the Democratic Convention last Tuesday, and those in attendance booed these boys.  While I can understand some of them being less than pleased with the BSA rules stating that homosexuals cannot be leaders, how in the hell can you confuse the boys with the overall executive leadership of an organization?  I know Dr. Pournelle used to be a Scoutmaster (or at least an Assistant, given what he has said in the past and based on certain passages he's written in books like Lucifer's Hammer).  I am an Eagle Scout, member of the Order of the Arrow, and I'm looking forward to getting involved with a troop when and if my son wishes to become a Boy Scout.  

While I'm against discrimination, with the possible exception of applying the death penalty to those who harm children, I also happen to agree with the Boy Scouts on this particular point.  If the Gay/Lesbian community is so upset by all of this, let them form the Gay/Lesbian Scouts, and go from there.  Whether they're 10%, 1%, or .001% of our society is not the key point - the key point is that the Boy Scouts ARE a TRADITIONAL organization - they base their activities and actions on methods that have been in use from the beginning of the last century.  If you don't like it, don't join.  For those of you who claim that the Eagle Scout award is an unfair advantage that people can use later in life, like some secret society, get over it.  I haven't been to a lodge meeting in years, as my hand-carved Eagle wings need some touching up - just kidding.  Those of you who claim that colleges offer scholarships or credits or whatever based on the Eagle Scout Award, I've never seen anything specific on this point, and I've never benefited by showing my Eagle Scout card to anyone.

I HAVE benefited quite a bit from my time in Scouts.  I joined when I was about 11 1/2, and stayed affiliated with Troop 11 in Sartell from early 1975 until probably 1986 or so.  I served in every leadership position in the troop with the exception of Bugler (yes, even the dreaded Chaplain and Historian).  I was the Senior Patrol Leader many times, a patrol leader at other times, and ASPL, APL, and even the Junior Assistant Scout Master (JASM).  I was an assistant Scoutmaster when I earned the Fifty-Mile Afoot/Afloat award (little tip for you - if you haven't been shirtless all summer, the worst possible time to chuck the shirt under your lifejacket/vest is probably the Sunday afternoon when you start your first mile of a 70-mile canoe trip.  Live and learn, or you don't live long.  Second-degree sunburn REALLY SUCKS.  Though I was a pretty good cook when it involved fire - my wife tells me my skills have diminished since then).  

Anyway - the Democrats should be ashamed of themselves that they couldn't differentiate between some kids (anywhere from 13 1/2 to 18) and a group of suits who are setting policy for the entire organization.  It's the same type of mentality that blamed a bunch of scared and confused young men as they returned from a battlefield where we didn't understand it, we couldn't win it, and we didn't know how to sell it - the general population blamed the average Vietnam Veteran for the actions of the Leaders Of The Government.  Talk about stupid.

It's almost enough to make me want to vote Ventura for President.  

More late tomorrow, if I get the chance.  Lots to do when we return - baths, unpacking, resumes out, and prepping for three interviews Monday, two Tuesday.  I'm gonna have a job here pretty quick if it kills me - of course, I'm going to take a couple days off and relax, too...

Sunday was lost in the transfer from Tripod to here... Sorry.
The good news is that there was nothing written that day.

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