Slightly Off KIlter

Normal is overrated

  • Almost 10 weeks

    Monday (technically) will mark the end of my 10th week at The Job; I started on Tuesday, May 4. Continue reading

  • Things of Science

    US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham gave a speech today at SLAC (the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). Rich has been working at SLAC these past 9 months so he attended the speech, then we talked about it over dinner. Continue reading

  • Hardware Hackery

    Rich has a T-shirt that says I Am a Professional. Do Not Try This at Home. Perhaps I should have worn that shirt this past Monday. 🙂 We have a Powerbook 2400. The 2400 is a fairly old Mac laptop. It's a PowerMac but it can't run Mac OS X. It will be stuck on… Continue reading

  • Sit on a Ball

    I have an "interesting" and unusual chair that I use at The Job. It's a 65 cm diameter, puncture-resistant, inflatable exercise ball! It makes a great conversation piece and it helps my back. Continue reading

  • iPod FUD

    Apparently the Gartner research firm has recently noticed that an iPod is actually a fully functional hard drive…. and they’re spreading paranoia. News Story by Laura Rohde JULY 06, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) – The iPod may be popular, but it also poses such a major security risk for businesses that enterprises should seriously consider… Continue reading

  • Your Password Has Expired

    This morning at The Job, the mail server (MS Exchange; blech) informed me that my password had expired. Ugh. It’s been warning me about this for a while; I’ve had no desire to do anything about this situation until it became an issue.. After several futile attempts to set a new password, each of which… Continue reading

  • Treasures 2004_27

    "Life … is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return?" — Margot Fonteyn Treasures are positive things that strike my fancy, that make me feel happy or thankful or interested. Treasures are memories encapsulated in just a few… Continue reading

  • Weekly Wrap-up (Sunday June 27 – Sunday July 4)

    The weather has been mostly fair, though we get a little fog in the evenings, but not heavy. I was asked to "look into" documenting the system process manager at The Job, as a sort of "pre-employment" test. It's a different sort of documenting project than I've done so far. OK, that should be fun.… Continue reading

  • Happy Fourth!

    Click the image above to go to an animated fireworks display. Continue reading

  • Red White and Boom

    Rich suggested I meet him in Palo Alto and we could have dinner and then go over to see the fireworks at Stanford. I thought that sounded like a good idea. At 6pm I drove to Millbrae and took what CalTrain calls the "baby bullet train". It only stops at SF, Millbrae, Hillsdale, Palo Alto,… Continue reading