Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

(Yes, there are such things. But they are fewer in number than Windows annoyances.)

After installing Ubuntu Linux from the distro CD-R, there are still some things that need to be done. Part of it is due to the omission of proprietary drivers and such. Computer neophytes aren't going to know how to do these tweaks, or want to do them. They want things to work out-of-the-box. And because of that, I can't recommend Ubuntu to those people at this time. Sometimes, with running Ubuntu, you need to DIY (do it yourself).

And starting in 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), the standard GUI has been switched from Gnome to Unity. I hated Unity at first, because it was different from Gnome. But as I use it more, it's not that much different from Gnome. But there are still some things with Unity that I'd like to tweak. This I'll save for a later post.

( Some how-tos for the things I had to tweak. Linux command-line wizardry follows. )

One of my colleagues on Facebook, Michael Buike, compiled a list of restaurants that are offering free food to US veterans on Friday, November 11 -- Veterans' Day. Reprinted with Michael's permission.

As always, bring proof of service and double-check the local restaurant if they are honoring the promotion.

( Here's the list. )

A new laptop -- or a refurbished one -- has been on my wish list for over a year. I ordered one for myself last year around Christmas time, but I sent it back, unopened, as I realized I couldn't afford to keep it. So the only thing I was out was the return shipping costs. Oh well.

A couple weeks ago, I was able to make a good-sized payment on my credit card. I had been looking at a Dell Latitude D620 refurbished laptop on overstock.com. (This one.) I placed my order, and within a week, it was in my hands. I also bought the matching docking station. Now I need to get a second power supply for it, and I'm all set!

A closer look at the machine showed that it was actually a D630. They must have run out of the D620s. So I got a free upgrade. Bonus!

( The specs, what I've done so far, and what I plan to install. And why a refurb? )

It seems that less and less people are on LiveJournal these days, leaving it for the so-called greener pastures of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, et al.

Are blogs passe? To be replaced with quick "sound bites" of a one-sentence or 140-character post?

I know Facebook has a Notes feature. But I hardly use it. Instead, my long, thought-out posts go here on LJ. But I'll admit, most of my recent posts have been on Facebook.

So, what can an LJ user do to preserve his or her posts? infobits posed this question a few days ago.

I know of two such programs, and have used them. It's probably time for me to get current.

LJBook can create a PDF file of your posts, from a specified range of dates to the entire journal, if you so desire.
http://www.ljbook.com/

LJArchive enables you to store an offline copy of your journal for reference and posterity.
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/ljarchive

This past weekend was the annual Ohio Valley Filk Festival in Columbus, Ohio.

Fri 10/21: Took the afternoon off from work so I could arrive at the con at a decent time. Met with jslove, whom I was rooming with foro the weekend. Found the registration table -- they were tucked away in a small room instead of being out in the open. Participated in the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, even though all I had to wear on my head was a baseball cap. Skipped the Pegasus Nominees concert to do some shopping at Micro Center and have dinner at Bravo. Came back to the hotel in time to attend and sit in on harperjen's harp workshop. Then went up to the room and crashed.

St 10/22: Had breakfast with fuzzyvanman, rms_butterfly, pondside, and Douglas in the hotel restaurant. I was still tired, so I went back up to the room to nap for a couple hours. Came back down to set up the gear for my Minimoog Workshop at 4pm. Sat in on gundo's blues workshop and min0taur's jamming workshop, while my instrument was getting warmed up. Then I moved the synth to the center of the room, explained and demonstrated what each of the knobs and switches did, and let people play around. robin_june and a few other folks took their turn. After the workshop was over, I packed up my gear and hung with maedbh7 in the registration room. Went to the Banquet and sat at a table with billroper, catalana, her husband Steve, Juanita, and scifantasy. After the banquet was over, I congratulated cadhla on her Pegasus Award wins, and then went back to the room for another nap. Came back down to listen to 19 Action News play....from a safe distance. Then went back upstairs for the night.

Sun 10/23 Packed up the car and paid my share of the hotel room. Had breakfast again in the hotel restaurant, this time by myself. Then left for home to pick up M. She played computer games all day. Took her home and had dinner at Burger King. It must have taken me 10 minutes to get my sandwich. Next time: Smashburger instead.

Last week, I received a postcard in the mail, advising me that I would be getting a call from the A.C. Nielsen Company. I checked my caller ID and sure enough, they called. Several times. (And didn't bother to leave a message.)

Sunday afterenoon, they called again, and I happened to be around to pick up. The caaller was very nice and polite, and had a pleasant voice. She had some questions for me, which I happily answered. She also mentioned that they'd be sending me a postcard that I could fill out and send back. Then came the question: "How many working TVs do you have at home?" I answered, "Um.....zero." at that point, it was pretty cutmuch "Oh. Have a nice day" and she hung up.

I rarely watch TV these days. About the only things I watch are the Weather Channel, the occasional sporting event, and maybe the local news. Nothing else interests me anymore, and hasn't for a few years. Sitcoms? Not funny. anymore. Drama? Nah. Cop or medical shows? Nope. I might turn the tube on and use it for background noise.

And I have no delusions about TV. To a television network, I'm not a customer -- I'm the product. The customers are the ones who buy advertising. And the product they're delivering are the number of pairs of eyeballs watching the commercials. It's not "a program with commercials in it", it's "commercials with a program around them".

Last December, I cut back on cable TV to absolute basic service to save money. Other than the Weather Channel, I don't miss the other channels I was getting. I often remark that cable companies should offer a la carte packages so we can pick and choose what channels we get.

And I still think there should be more Nielsen families like me. People who don't bother to watch television. But that would probably skew their expected results.

So....zorya_thinks asked, in my previous post, "Have you thought about walking upstairs occasionally and engaging your team members face to face? "

This question is kicking up a lot of stuff for me.

The short answer is "no". There's no guarantee that the folks I need to talk to will be at their desks and available to answer questions. Plus I think there's a company policy about not having meetings or conferences in cubicles, because it creates too much noise for neighbors. We primarily use Microsoft Communicator (instant messenger) and Lotus Notes (email) for communication. I don't even pick up the phone and call them..

But I hate asking people questions. Sometimes I get a look or a tone of voice that conveys to me, "I expect you to know these things." Or I'm rebuffed with "I'm too busy". Or I'm given the passive-agressive response of no answer at all.

After all, asking for help is a sign of weakness. I'm expected to figure this stuff out on my own. That's why they hired me, right?

When I worked at AGI two years ago, one of the tem leads -- Mike -- resented my questioning him. He'd respond with "Google is your friend!" or provide me a link to lmgtfy.com (Let Me Google That For You). It was like he was saying to me, "Go away kid, you bother me."

I don't know when or why I learned to not bother people with questions. I guess it was in elementary school. I suspect it was my 3rd grade teacher who was tired of my incessant questioning and implored me to leave her alone. (I don't think she ever taught a gifted kid before me.)

In the past couple of weeks, I've been tasked with writing unit tests for the code I developed. My project lead is big on unit testing, and wants the code to be tested thoroughly with many varied test cases.

What is unit testing? Wikipedia defines it thusly: "unit testing is a method by which individual units of source code are tested to determine if they are fit for use." What it means for my client is to identify test cases, determine what the anticipated results are, run the code, and check the results to see if they match the anticipated results.

This was something I never learned in college, This would have been covered in a software engineering class. There was one on the books, but we didn't have an instructor to teach that course. (Yeah, I can go on ab out the politics of my CS department, but I'll save that for another time.)

So I'm struggling with this. I can look at the data, and I can't tell if it looks right or not. I've asked for help, but the attitude I seem to get from both my project lead and tech lead is "We expect you to know these things." And so I write the tests, not know if if what I'm looking for is the right answer or not.

One of the many songs I remember singing at Boy Scout camp was "Bound For Australia". (Original lyrics here.)

But I remember a corrupted version of the song. The was another troop at a neighboring campsite -- Troop 547 from Lackawanna, if I remember correctly. One year, one of the boys was going for Bee Keeping merit badge. And the rest of the guys in his troop razzed him for it. They subsituted the word "Bees" for the word "Heave". And that's how I remembered the song:


Bees away, my bonnie boys
Bees away! Bees away!
Bees away, my bomnnie boys
For we're bound for Australia


I tried going for Signaling merit badge one year. And didn't get it.

"Be kind to your web-footed friends......."

On the Filkers group in Facebook, there was a suggestion for a new filk convention, using the name "Concino" (Latin for "to sing in chorus" or "to play together").

As if our summers aren't booked enough already. Conventions, Pennsic, PSG, Starwood -- these would take up some of my spare summer time if I could attend. (Well, maybe not Pennsic.)

And so I thought....What about a weekend-long (or longer) campout of filkers? Right now, I can't afford the time or money to put this together. But in a few years, I might have both.

The name of the convention would be "Contrails", as in "Con[vention]" + "trails". Yes, I'm aware of the other meaning of the word -- those trails that jets leave when they fly in the air.

Next question: Location. Where would it be held? I have a few sites in mind: Allegany State Park near Salamanca/Olean, NY, Oakwood Farm near Muncie, IN, Brown County State Park near Nashville, IN.

There would be little or no programming, giving it a "relaxacon" feel. We'd probably all sit around the campfire, singing filk songs and possibly passing around a bottle of mead, or Tully. (As long as it's not a dry site.)

Naturally, since we'll be outside, all the instruments will need to be acoustic and/or unplugged.

If and when I start this, I'll probably start it as a circle-of-friends weekend, and let it grow from there.