Daynotes 1999 week 40

Daynotes: Week of 4 - 10 Oct, 1999

Daily notes and commentary -- Week 40

* Link to: last modified 23:30 GMT+2 on 10.10.1999

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Monday 4 October

G'day all... Better late than never, as far as these updates go. Don't ask where the day went (or it might return, hehe -- The Return of the Undead Day!) Managed, somehow, some productive editing. Oh well, let's hope my co-author agrees about the productive/useful bit. (ah, he does... phew)

A portion of the day involved woodwork, as Therese and I crafted a sturdy but interesting scratching pole for the kittens. She was home from school, ill today, so some of today's activities involved giving her requisite attention. (Isabel is off studying, studying, studying.) Anyway, scratching pole... Solid base, to which we screwed on a suitably thick and long branch carefully sawed to the right length -- figure "3 cat-lengths" and prepare to be surprised at how fa-a-a-ar a cat can stretch (1½ lengths was more what it turned out to be). Screwed on allows incremental upgrades as opportunity presents itself and the cats grow. Finally we added to this impressive construction the miserable excuse of a "rat" scratchboard bought previously, and a bracket at the top to dangle irresistable things from. Afterwards that kittens inspected the device, clearly bemused by it, but some time later they figured it out and had great fun.

I find myself at day's end "mildly disturbed" by all the non-writing things I had to attend to today, many unplanned and interrupt-driven. Not a good way to start the week. In fact as I look back over the past few weeks, I am very displeased indeed about the lack of effective and productive time I see -- it is nowhere near what was envisioned. Looking at the stack of to-do items... nope... not a pretty sight... oops... looks like it's toppling over... surely not... yup... it is... <argh>

Two somewhat related thoughts for the day.

One of the hardest things to do in life is to listen without intent to reply.
It is all right to hold a conversation but you should let go of it now and then.

Tuesday 5 October

Sunny outside, somewhat gloomier inside. I need to focus on writing much more (not just the current book), but circumstances dictate otherwise. I also have the Rotary Doctor Bank newsletter update to finish and publish on its site. I have gone back to IrfanView for its fast thumbnail generation, and must say that the current version of the program is much better than the earlier ones. I still prefer the general browsing functionality of ACDSee, but clearly the choice is now much more for personal bias than any really big differences in what the programs do.

The latest Jakob Nielsen Alertbox is one that all web designers should nail to their mouse :) -- Ten design elements that would increase the usability of virtually all websites if only they were employed more widely. Note, simple, pro-active recommendations in contrast to the earlier "10 greatest mistakes of..." critiques.

This evening I hear of a "minor" drama that occurred last Friday and Monday. A well-dressed seemingly respectable man had been observed hanging around a schoolyard during recesses chatting up small girls, offering goodies and cash. On Friday, during one break, staff responding to loud screaming saw him physically trying to drag two Grade 1 girls out of a remote corner of the schoolyard. Seeing the approaching staff, he let go and ran off before anyone could do anything.

Amazingly, on Monday the man was back again in broad daylight, and the school principal who was out during the break recognized him from descriptions. The principal immediately headed towards the man, who was again chatting up some of the girls, and called the police on the cellular. Once again the man ran off, but this time the police caught him. He was however released after about an hour's questioning. Evidently, he "hadn't done anything", and could not be detained further despite having a long police record of molesting young girls and boys. Strange...

One must not be paranoid about this sort of thing, but all parents (in fact all adults) must be aware that there are more than a few predators out there, of all kinds. In particular parents need to have talks with children (at several ages) about how to best deal with overly "friendly or generous" strangers who may approach them, and above all caution the kids not to end up alone with them. The object is not to mistrust and fear everybody all the time, but rather to not be so naively trusting of anybody in all situations. Trust has to be earned; it is not a default value.

Suspecting pedophilia left and right has however in recent years become the modern witchhunt, and tragedies have occurred on both ends -- there is no doubt that children are molested or worse, but also innocent adults are persecuted and vilified on the basis of unsubstantiated hearsay. Authorities prove especially maladroit at identifying and handling suspected situations -- often ignoring the "obvious", while doggedly pursuing chimaera.

Wednesday 6 October

Another day, another dollar -- I wish.

I worked up another book proposal, thinking ahead for life after Outlook 2000. Some more advance money would be very handy right about now. Ever read about those authors who negotiate multi-million dollar contracts? -- "What I heard while sharpening the President's pencils" -- "I was a Windows sex slave" -- "The inside story of the ET takeover of Redmond". Well, it sure ain't us working writers, folks. We tell it like it is, sell it like it is.

Anyway, I did a household budget breakdown, and it near gave me a breakdown. We clearly need some cost reduction re-allocations during the month ahead.

Cost-reduction move -- a corporate action based on a detailed analysis showing that omitting some product or service component with cost X will save total Y in a year, without seeing that this will reduce customer revenue by Z -- Z being much larger than Y, and cost X being trivial per unit but the component functionality non-trivial to the customer.
(Classic example from industry: 4 instead of 5 screws to hold internal panel in car, resulting in serious vibration noise, expensive and inconclusive service visits, potential model recalls, and lost sales.)

Situations and aims change, and I have been reviewing some of the older (mostly org) webpages in my mind. Some go back a good three years or so, and relate to a very different structural concept as I was experimenting over a number of free non-domain sites. Ever the conflict between link permanence and the desire for change... I am reminded of this by the odd comment or two by Tom about the joys of filling virgin domain space with new material and layouts. Ah well, I do have the extra temptation to "wikify" further sections to open them for user comment. And I suppose I can buy some more domains just for fun.

Speaking of page formats. The current journal format seems fine for the present -- at least I've not heard any complaints about the layout. (Then again, I've not had much in the way of comment either way, except for the positive vote of "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".) The color scheme is muted and "216-safe" -- although I will be the first to admit that the colors render significantly different on LCD compared to my Sony 15" -- not to mention when I change the CRTs color temperature, or try the Goldstar on another system.

Customers who consider our staff uncivil should see the manager. -- (a helpful sign)

Thursday 7 October

Strange, this morning a sizable chunk of the US is inaccessible via the Internet. I did a tracert on a few domains, and look at what I got (color coded to highlight the interesting part):

...
4 60 ms 60 ms 60 ms Hssi12-0.GW2.STK2.ALTER.NET [146.188.34.53]
5 60 ms 60 ms 60 ms 422.ATM6-0-0.CR1.STK2.Alter.Net [146.188.5.65]
6 150 ms 150 ms 161 ms 219.ATM3-0.BR1.NYC5.Alter.Net [146.188.3.201]
7 150 ms 161 ms 150 ms 431.ATM4-0.GW1.NYC5.ALTER.NET [137.39.30.117]
8 150 ms 161 ms 150 ms 151.ATM3-0.XR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.238]
9 * 150 ms 160 ms 195.ATM6-0-0.HR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.93]
10 150 ms 150 ms 161 ms 101.ATM2-0.XR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.86]
11 150 ms 151 ms 160 ms 195.ATM6-0-0.HR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.93]
12 150 ms 161 ms 150 ms 101.ATM2-0.XR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.86]
13 161 ms 150 ms 160 ms 195.ATM6-0-0.HR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.93]
14 151 ms 160 ms 160 ms 101.ATM2-0.XR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.86]
15 151 ms 150 ms 160 ms 195.ATM6-0-0.HR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.93]
16 150 ms 170 ms 150 ms 101.ATM2-0.XR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.86]
17 160 ms 150 ms 160 ms 195.ATM6-0-0.HR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.93]
18 150 ms 160 ms 160 ms 101.ATM2-0.XR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.177.86]
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.

As you can see from hop 9, the packets end up going in circles in NYC between servers ~.93 and ~.86), until finally we just get timeouts. Weird... <...minutes later...> Hmmm, keeping an eye on this. <...later still...> The condition seems fixed, but some sites are still unreachable.

Climate report

More than 2,000 square miles of ice have since 1995 broken up at Larsen Icefield, which runs 600 miles up the Antarctic peninsula.
Measurements in the (Antarctic) peninsula show its average temperature has risen by more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit since 1930, with around half the warming occurring in the last 20 years. U.S. scientists predicted in the 1970s that melting of Antarctica's ice shelves would be a clear signal of accelerating global warming.
Ice shelves help insulate the continental ice cap from warmer weather. While few scientists believe the entire cap can melt, even its partial disappearance could prove catastrophic. The ice cap forms a giant dome over the Antarctic continent and is on average 6,000 feet thick. It contains 70 percent of the world's fresh water and, if it all melted, that would cause sea levels to rise by 120-300 feet.

Some sage advice from author Jerry Pournelle:

Writing is NOT a full time job, even if it is your only job.

Meaning that you still need time to follow other pursuits and to daydream for ideas. I can also add that many writing tasks need research, which you are not always aware of before you find the facts that you first then realize you need. In other words, you need to do and read many things that may appear unrelated to your "main" task -- but such is life.

Friday 8 October

After yesterday's (news) article about melting Antarctic ice, there's been a veritable flood of other articles -- some claiming that the melt-off is wholly natural and has been going on for the past 10,000 years, some warning that the effect seen is accelerated today. Ah well, only time will tell. One curious counter-effect to sea warming is the release of e.g. locked-up methane from sea bottom, which would actually lower the sea level and for a time compensate for sea level rise from water heating and melting ice. However, this has its own risks, because released methane provides positive feedback to the "greenhouse" warming process. Climate regulation is a very complex thing.

Interesting times. Two reports from different researchers studying comets that they have calculated the existence of a "super Jupiter" planet somewhere very far out beyond Pluto.

Swedish news warns us that if the winter gets cold, we are likely to experience significant electricity outages -- planned outage rotation schemes exist. The reason is that by December, Swedish utilities will have 10% less production capacity than previous years. The blame is being put mainly on deregulation which has caused a number of backup facilities (more expensive) to have been decommissioned. One of the nuclear generators will be closed in December as well.

Seems fairly conclusive now that at the end of the month there will be no more car ferry to Copenhagen. This is despite the fact that the "completed" bridge/tunnel will not open for traffic until next summer at the earliest. Whether the airport bus to Kastrup now will be several hours over an alternate ferry connection North of here, or just be dropped is unclear.

My writing energy has been used up on other matters today, so I end this for the night. Keep well. I note that the "newcomers" to the "daygang circuit" are putting us "oldies" to shame, showing an incredible outflow of interesting material on their respective pages this last week or two.

Saturday 9 October

And today a considered opinion what awaits us...

``Y2K-caused effects on daily life will be complex and more chronic than acute,'' said Bruce McConnell, director of the International Y2K Cooperation Center, a World Bank-funded, United Nations-backed clearinghouse.
(...) The most significant Y2K risk is not localized technology failures, he said, but a decline in the meshing of ``electronic devices, procedures, people and organizations that together make modern life workable and efficient.''
McConnell said botched Y2K code fixes, computer viruses that mimic Y2K effects and untested contingency plans were likely to slow the process of ``getting life back to normal.''

This view seems more realistic than most of the other predictions I have seen. So far, I agree with the much earlier prediction that the greatest risk may be too many people overreacting and causing problems because of this (leaving jobs, hamstring supplies, panic reactions of various kinds).

Sunday 10 October

* Heavens... Sunday, the day of rest... -- the rest of everything that didn't get finished earlier in the week that is.

We needed some ID-type photos today, so we went down to the larger grocery store that has a portrait machine in the back. Quick work <poof...poof...poof...poof...>, but I guess I must be getting grayer, because my photos came out a bit strange. Part of the problem was I suppose that one couldn't pull down a dark background, as in some other machines, part is that the photos were black&white only.

I like to think that in real life I've been looking more distinguished with the years. On the photos however, I have to concede that I look just a little bit extinguished. Photographic artifact, to be sure, but not terribly flattering... Then again, ID-type photos tend not to be -- I have had my share of horrific drivers-licence and passport photos.

Edward decided lately to follow the "dark side" for a change in Jedi Knights. Interesting. The game adapts to this, shows different video cuts, and sets up variant scenarios. Who says good guys have all the fun...<g>

Tomorrow, it is back to the weekday routines again. I sure hope I get in more writing this time round. I must produce a useful chapter about the VBA and VBS programming of Outlook -- should have had it done last week.

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