Daynotes 1999 week 22

Daynotes: Week of 31 May - 6 June, 1999

Daily notes and commentary -- Week 22

* Link to: last modified 23:20 GMT+2 on 06.06.1999

Hi, welcome to this week's daybook page.

himself See the update-link (above) that points where I last added some text, which should simplify your keeping up to speed. Of course, you may still have to scroll back a bit and see if I've updated more than once since you last visited, but that is easily done.

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Write me at: bo@leuf.com -- if private, mark it as such!
Posted mail/discussion, see the WikiForum LeufNet
Occasional thematic articles, see "DisISay" LeufOrg

Monday 31.05

This morning, a visit to the local bank office to move some cash around to cover bills. Ever noticed how, apart from there never really being enough cash, it invariably is in the wrong account when the bills come due? Anyway, the ATM was still showing the usual weekend red "Closed" display, so it was time to be sociable and use the office liveware services.

All good and well, and when my time came around (5 or 6 staff around, 3 tills "open", but only one of them actually processing customers -- this at month's end?), the lady took my slips, tapped in the numbers... and tapped some more.. frowned,. and pulled out the full keyboard under the counter, tapped some more... and yet some more. Then she asked me to specify the exact account name, and alternated a while between keypad and keyboard. She noted down my drivers licence number on the withdrawal slip. And keyed more terminal arcana, jotted down an ID number from the screen beside the one previously noted. It matched, but she kept calling up still more info from her screen. I asked if there was a problem, but "no, not at all". Interesting conflict between the words and the frown. All this for what was a $300 withdrawal, of which $250 wasn't even leaving the bank, but just going to another personal account.

I haven't a clue what it was all about, but in due time the sums were moved. I'm told they really care about the security of "my" cash deposits. I've noticed. Like the time I wanted to withdraw ten times that amount in cash -- Geez, the looks I got, and I then had to cool my heels for a good twenty minutes while they evidently looked for the banknotes in the vault downstairs... :). It's enough to put a guy off money for good.

A penny saved is a penny to squander. -- (Bierce, tDD)
and apropos the recent quotes (again from the Devil's Dictionary):
Saw, n. A trite popular saying, or proverb. (Figurative and colloquial.) So called because it makes its way into a wooden head.
(Paraphrased continuation: More fun when fitted with new teeth.)

I can see that I am on the "edge" with my NT system at 64 Mb RAM. Depending on what I have open, the swap activity will at times just top out the available RAM and cause slowdowns that I can notice. Outlook is a big player there. Word, on the other hand, less so that I would have thought, but Word 2000 is much leaner and meaner than its previous versions. Actually, a largely likable application in this incarnation, though its inconsistent automatic corrections can really bother me sometimes.

Anyway, I suspect that it is time to upgrade to 128 Mb.

Listening to the radio, sort of, while writing. A lot of detail work specifying selectable dialog options, so it helps to have music on to screen off other distractions. Some good music. Sometimes.

On the other hand, sometimes the radio provides enough of its own. A particularly bad distraction are some commercials -- I especially dislike the pseudo-news variety, a recent development. The theory seems to be that if you successfully emulate the tone and delivery of on-location breaking-news reports, people will listen to the ad. Yuck.

This supersedes/overlaps the obnoxious neighbour and the totally dumb delivery. I'd write more about these, but I really don't want to remember them much.

Another Jakob Nielsen article hits the web, and slams the Top Ten New Mistakes of Web Designing.

For once I found myself not agreeing quite as much as usual on the first read, for it is not entirely clear that the things he takes up are all bad. But I do agree that the webpage designer needs to somehow find a fresh view to see exactly what he is doing and why. I realize for example that I had started to force new windows on some links without clearly thinking out why. My initial instinct had I suppose been the reasoning that I "preserve" the original window for the user, but after reading this presented as a mistake, I see that it is true that I am as likely to confuse the reader as help. After all, the browser convention of Shift+click on a link for a new window is easy enough so there is no excuse for not allowing full control of this "forking" behaviour to the user.

Example is better than following it -- (Bierce, tDD)

Tuesday 01.06

Have recently been running RamBooster (link to WikiForum page) on and off, and it is interesting to correlate its "freeing" process with the detailed figures given in the NT4 Task Manager performance window. The varying RAM-free figures reported by the program are the same as those reported by Task Manager (except when RB is busy doing whatever it does, and TM shows peaked usage). I would agree with the wiki-posted comments that what RB appears to do under NT is flush out low-usage stuff to the paging file. Given that the NT's paging seems to work well-enough on its own, the only thing I can see is that RB will affect the timing of such flushing, rather than the effects as such.

Under Win95, however, the benefits of this control of timing are reported to be significant, and can probably prevent problems and lockups due to the less efficient way paging works there. Win98? -- not a clue.

A man is known by the company he organizes. -- (Bierce, tDD)

A lot of writing and editing today. Makes me less chatty on these pages, if only for the lack of time.

A continuation of WebMistakes went to wiki discussion. Mmm, I like this interaction between Daynotes and Wiki...

Where there's a will, there's a won't. -- (Bierce, tDD)

Wednesday 02.06

Today is our 15th Anniversary. My wife and I met late in life, compared to most, but we figure we will outlast most couples nonetheless. So far the statistics bear us out...

Resuming writing and editing work for the day. Interesting thing about vCard attachments in Outlook: I find that a number of people haven't a clue that you can use them to update the contacts file. I sent out a batch recently to notify about my changed business phone number(s), and because I did not explicitly write the new numbers in the message body, this registered in some quarters with a resounding Huh?

Actually, I got to thinking that there are further features that could enhance vCard functionality. A century or so ago, visiting or calling cards were quite the thing, the comme-il-fjutt of the upwardly mobile, and absolutely de-rigueur for the established and somewhat flaky upper crust. Many think England, but it was a wide-spread trend.

Anyway, an elaborate social code evolved around the cards, specifically the fine art of folding corners and the whole card in different ways to convey subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) signals, both from card giver to the recipient, and back again in cases where the card was returned. When visiting someone, you were expected to hand your calling card to the servant who would convey this to the one you wanted to see. Depending on your purpose for the visit, you may first have made the appropriate fold(s). Needless to say, servants were assumed ignorant of such covert signalling, not infrequently of amorous intent or at odds with the overt verbal message. Needless to say, they generally knew at least as much as the principals of the exchange. Depending on the mood of the recipient, or any chaperon or guardian who might intercept the card, you were then admitted or not, or returned your card with a newly folded reply.

Like all languages and codes, there were variations over time and between locales, so (time)travellers beware -- an upper-left dog-ear on a card might mean something completely different from what was intended. No doubt it was a profitable time for the engravers and printers of the day.

Perhaps the recent technology of digital watermarking coupled with image inclusions may have a future in a vCard setting, and so bring back some of these older social traditions? Maybe we will in future Nokia cellulars have vCard modules with Secure Social Sublayer Signalling (S3S™ technology) along with our e-mail and voice functionality?

Who know? I hope you enjoyed this little ramble in the verbiage while I warmed up my keyboard.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swoln, and drowns things weighty and solid. -- Francis Bacon

Thursday 03.06

(writing, writing, writing -- editing, editing, editing -- write some more -- think, think, think -- write, write, write...)

Learning, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious. -- (Bierce, tDD)

Friday 04.06

(more writing today)

Hmm, I looked into the matter of RAM upgrades, since I am reaching the point I suspected a year ago when I bought this machine, that the double-the-minimum (then 32M, i.e. I got 64M) approach would be looking more minimum with time, and 128M looking more attractive.

Unfortunately, the machine was delivered with 2 x 32M RAM modules and not 1 x 64M, so the upgrade means scrapping the existing modules and buying two 64M to upgrade, instead of just one. The price quote for this, though likely much lower than last year, still comes out to about US $400 here.

Ouch! That was not the cost I had in mind...

Of course if anybody reading this has recently done the same kind of upgrade from 2x64M to 2x128M or better, they would then have a couple of spare RAM modules, you know, just gathering dust, totally worthless... (ahem...)
-- 2 x 64Mb 3.3V EDO RAM as SODIMM 144-pin modules
-- (hint-nudge-wink). <grin>

Looking at the growing stack of reading material I've been neglecting of late, not to mention a number of web page updates that should be done sometime soon. Then looking at how the weekly schedule keeps filling up, week by week... Hmm. Next Friday is the last day of school for the summer. Hmm x 2. Isabel wants us to all have a number of outings once the kids are free -- yes, that was "all". Hmmm x 4.

I'll have to think about that.

Projectile, n. The final arbiter in international disputes. Formerly these disputes were settled by physical contact of the disputants, with such simple arguments as the rudimentary logic of the times could supply -- the sword, the spear, and so forth. With the growth of prudence in military affairs the projectile came more and more into favor, and is now held in high esteem by the most courageous. Its capital defect is that it requires personal attendance at the point of propulsion. -- (Bierce tDD)

Saturday 05.06

Consider this...

You should express your individual creativity.
Realize that you are accountable.
Before birth you agreed to help others.
Mature emotionally.
Entertain (yourself and others).
Be a steward of your energy.
Indulge in music.
Strive to achieve wisdom.
Learn self-discipline.
Observe without judgement. (Judgement requires forgiveness. And energy.)

Thoughts quoted from Mutant Message From Forever , by Marlo Morgan (who also wrote Mutant Message frm Downunder ) -- links are to AmazonCom.

Today I am cleaning up the desk, among other things, and getting rid of a lot of little scribbled notes. Some can end up here, others in my growing local wiki notebook. I also find a lot of dust...

A "refurninishing" of my desktop proved interesting, because as time passes, so do requirements on working space. Different arrangements give different possibilities. Especially when there are several systems to consider and lots of wiring to complicate matters. Interesting result.

Sunday 06.06

* (Swedish National Day,)

Hmm, appears that the day in honor, Swedish telco made long-distance (domestic) calling free for the day. Do tell. Was a tad hard to verify anywhere. Somehow I didn't see myself sitting on the phone all day in any case.

More, adj. The comparative degree of too much. -- (Bierce, tDD)

The day went to atypical yet mundane tasks. Repairing a punctured bicycle tire. Assisting daughter with a woodcraft project she had taken home over the weekend -- i.e. providing a guidance with tools and how-to. That sort of thing.

Comparatively little time on the computer, however. Which kind of was the general idea for the weekend. It was on the other hand on much of the afternoon and evening and I kept returning to the keyboard to jot down a note or two, check the mail, and so on. Not enough to clear the desk, as commendable as that was, but one must clear the mind as well. A wiki notebook is good for that, I find, because there is no immediate demand for structure. Some notes don't yet have enough context for linking into a formal structure, and a wiki allows these to be entered on the fly and organized later. The point of a wiki is that the note does not get lost (like paper ones), but will always surface in searches for particular words and can then be linked into an emerging topic structure. I keep experimenting with this as I add more types of material to the growing body of notes.

Tomorrow, I probably have to start chasing some invoice payments that are now a week overdue. They may be late in being paid, or it may be the bank transfers that are delayed. The banks usually take a few days extra to process things, and sometimes another few days before accounts are updated, but when a whole week goes by...

Philosophy, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing. -- (Bierce, tDD)

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