This has been a wet week. Lots of drizzly days and even some windy lashing rain from the south! We're having a wet spring.
Rich picked up a couple of copies of the Mac OS X 10.3.4 (Tiger) family pack. We've been upgrading machines around the house.
There are some interesting things in Tiger. Spotlight looks cool. Rich has been co-authoring a small developer-oriented e-book on Spotlight. I like the "launch it again" button that appears if an app "unexpectedly quits" and the "More Info…" button in Finder previews.
In doing the upgrades, we were surprised to discover that two of our G3s id not in fact contain DVD drives – one of the perils of buying used equipment. So, after some discussion, Rich went down to CompUSA where he found a dual-layer DVD-Writer for $109 (before a $20 rebate) and a DVD-R (CDRW) for $50. The latter will go into the machine he used for his last contract (and plans to use for the next contract if they ever get the paperwork finished).
Unfortunately, I can't upgrade my desktop system yet because I use that to connect to the Company Intranet from home and Cisco's VPN client is not yet compatible with Tiger. Sigh. One or two of my other must-have apps aren't Tiger compatible yet either.
For dinner one night, Rich bought a rolled pork thing stuffed with sausage at our local grocery store. I've always been meaning to buy one of those "just put it into the oven" things so now we tried one. It was good. We also had giant artichokes and cheesy cauliflower and peach turnovers for desert.
(Pepperidge Farm has a way with pastry.)
May 4 marked my 1-year anniversary at this Job. That's pretty good, considering that I haven't lasted a full year anywhere since 1997.
Weird things department:
I tried to make a call to an 800 number on the cell phone in the Scion the other day and got an error message
Code 68-4! This number is invalid or blocked from your area code!
(Have you ever asked yourself why telephone error messages like this shout at you? What happened to "we're sorry, but…").
Anyhoo, I thought "That's weird" and considered calling the number from a landline to tell them there was a problem (but forgot to do so). I didn't think anything of it again until Sunday morning when we got the same error trying to call a friend on that phone a friend we call regularly, using a speed-dial number coded into the phone.
That was too weird. So I called 611 and the helpful CS Rep said "That number has been disconnected". To which I replied "What?!?! Why? How?! Fix That!". He couldn't see any reason logged so I left him investigating and re-enabling the number and we went to breakfast.
Amusement for the week:
There is a notice posted on the door at one of our Longs Drugs stores that says:
We like pets as much as anyone
but the state of California prohibits
animals in our store unless they are
sight-impaired guidedogs or
disability assistance animals.
I said to Rich that I wouldn't think a sight-impaired guidedog would be much help… perhaps if they were fitted for corrective lenses?
This just proves one of the reasons why real AI is so hard to do. A human _knows_ what the person writing the sign meant (even though that's not at all what they said). A computer would take it literally.
This week I read First Truth, by Dawn Cook. It's a fantasy novel, first of four. I enjoyed the plot and the people and bought the rest of the set. I've started #2.
I also discovered Getting Things Done by David Allen. This was recommended by Adam Engst in TidBITS#777/25-Apr-05 (See "A Shiny New NoteBook", Adam's review of one of my favorite and must-have apps). So far I'm impressed by Allen's book so impressed, in fact, that I've ordered additional copies to give or lend!
In between and around the rest, I've had almost enough naps and plenty of snuggles with the cats. There have been good meals and interesting conversations with Spouse and friends. I've had chats with my Dad and exchanged email with my Mom and sister.
Onward and Upward.
Slightly Off KIlter 