Date: 2008-07-22 10:49 Subject: The 55 experiment Security: Public Current Mood: geriatric

Let me say this up front: I will never, ever, ever advocate for a return to the 55mph national speed limit. It was stupid the first time. It was the most widely ignored law since Prohibition, created a nation of scofflaws, and spawned an entire industry of products whose sole intent was to aid lawbreakers. The fuel savings were minimal, and "55 Saves Lives" was completely debunked. Never again.

But in the interest of science and $4/gallon gas, I'm trying an experiment: Under normal circumstances, a mixture of in-town driving and a 40-mile 287 and Garden State Parkway commute to work, which regularly entails sitting in massive traffic jams or rerouting on surface streets to avoid them, my car's trip computer reports average mileage of about 27mpg and an average speed of around 45mph. Typical traffic speeds on open highway are around 75-80mph, and I'm right with them. Typical speeds on 287 during the evening rush are about 75-80 feet per hour, and I'm right with them.

What happens if I change nothing about my driving except that I will not exceed 55mph, safety permitting?

So I filled up yesterday, reset the computer, and set off to work, taking up residence in that netherworld known as The Right Lane. I was able to set the cruise control even in traffic, because let's face it, there'd be nothing to slow down for. It's still pretty scary. I was tailgated (slipstreamed?) almost the entire time, but always at the head of a line of several cars who were making no effort to pass, even when the center and left lanes were wide open. A trend, perhaps?

Forget what some 55mph advocates tell you. You do NOT have time to admire the scenery. Your crawl drive is NOT more relaxing. You're still driving in traffic, and the speed differential between you and your center-lane neighbors is Autobahn-like. OTOH, I'm not getting high-beamed, honked at or flipped off, because I stay to the right, and if I have to move left (e.g., the lefthand exit 14 off 287), I match prevailing speed. The first day's result shows mileage hovering between 29 and 30. We'll see how the rest of the tank goes.

I'm also telecommuting two days a week, which is where the real, measurable savings are to be found.

Date: 2008-07-15 10:47 Subject: Perl n00b question Security: Public Current Mood: n00b

I'm a long-time shell programmer, but I'm not that hot with Perl.

Most shells have a source command, analogous to C's #include. I have a bunch of Perl scripts that have hard-coded data that needs to be abstracted out, e.g.,

$my_site = "New Jersey";

There will also be a couple small functions in the "if not cached, do the expensive thing then cache it, else use the cached value" vein.

Should I try to use whatever Perl's equivalent of source is, or is this involved enough to cobble together a library or module?

Date: 2008-07-14 12:04 Subject: Philly, 7/13/08, 7-0 +550 FTW Security: Public Current Mood: accomplished

Tournament wins, I'm learning, are cool. Going 7-0 doesn't suck either.

I wasn't even planning on going, until greatscott66 pointed out Saturday night that this time there'd be five divisions instead of four, and that I'd likely be pretty far down in division 4, not at the top of 5. So reillye being the accommodating sort that she is, let the lawnwork slide, and Matt, being the accommodating sort that he is, let me in when I called him at a bit after 9:00 Sunday morning.

I get there, and after the dust settles, I'm ninth seed out of 11 in division 4. It's a good place to be, because the ratings spread is only about 250--the top seeds aren't guaranteed to crush the rest of us.

Tile synergy is what did it. Not too much vowelitis, and very little of the Noah's Ark Syndrome that's been plaguing me at club lately. I drew above average on power tiles (8/14 blanks, 15/28 S, 23/35 JKQXZ), but it was made even better for me that my opponents got stuck with three esses and a blank.

My last game was won by pure luck. Late in the game I had SOAPIER on my rack, and opp closed what I thought were the two open lanes for it, and I completely missed another place it would have played. I also didn't see (V)APORISE. His final rack was AMOUY?? and he had ten minutes to search, but he (and I) didn't see ArMOUrY, AUtOnYM or MO(R)tUArY, playable outbingoes that would have given him the game. It wouldn't have cost me the tournament, because I had a 125-point spread cushion, but I still can't claim credit for that win.

I certainly don't mind taking home a check, but the real win is that my rating should jump to 1140 or so, which is the breakout from the bottom division I've been waiting for. The next step is 1200, which will get me into the top half of ranked players.

Edit: My Brawndo T-shirt is starting to make me believe in luck.

Edit 7/21/08: 1145. Neato.

Date: 2008-07-10 12:44 Subject: Telecommuting Security: Public

My first full-time job was 100% telecommuting. Between high school and college, I had a summer job with the local vocational-technical school to write an app that did estimations of students' program completion based on about half a dozen factors. They sent me home with a carload of Apple II stuff, and told me to let them know how I was doing every week or two, then bring in the finished product at the end of the summer. For that, I got paid about $14/hour in today's money.

My parents were nice enough to let me take over the dining room that whole summer. I'd get up about 7:30 every morning, work until 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon, then go do summery stuff the rest of the day. Sure beat working evenings at the local Red Lobster, which I had done the summer before. And it taught me how to get the job done without the boss looking over my shoulder.

To this day, my best work days are those where I speak to pretty much nobody. The interrupt-driven stuff comes in through my trouble-ticketing system, and the rest of the time I decide what's highest priority. My users know that their requests are resolved fastest this way, and that interrupting me for status is the quickest way to get their request deprioritized down to somewhere below feeding the cat. (N.B. Because of reillye's allergies, we will never have a cat.)

Being a lab manager, there are days when I just have to be there. I can't move servers or run cables, or install software from CD from home. But on days like today, where all my work is at the keyboard, there is no reason for me to drive to the office. So instead, I enjoy:

1: Two free hours not spent in the car.
2: Windows that open (it's a nice day here in NJ today).
3: Natural or incandescent light.
4: No distractions == high productivity.
5: Five steps to the bathroom, no security PITA to get back to my desk.
6: Money!

That last works out like this:
Gas: 80 miles r/t, 27mpg, $4.20/gal = ~$12.50, more if I go out to lunch or get stuck in traffic
Lunch: Usually about $6.50
Tolls: $1.20
Plus devaluation and wear and tear on the car, harder to quantify.

So that's around $20 a day I spend for the privilege of going to work. And the only downside is that I fall behind on my podcasts. I think I can work with that.

Date: 2008-07-10 08:41 Subject: Odd sounds Security: Public Current Mood: nosy neighbor

They're pouring a patio (or maybe a helipad) in the backyard next door, but I can only hear it--can't see through the trees. When the cement truck guns up the motor, I can't tell whether it's to lift the concrete out of the tank (barrel? chamber?) or to do a massive burnout.

Date: 2008-07-07 11:27 Subject: ho'D Security: Public Current Mood: relieved

Had to dig a bit further into LJ's style stuff, but I got my old theme back. This stuff has come a long way since I first cobbled this theme together. The real challenge for making a new theme will be to figure out where S2 code stops and CSS begins.

Or maybe I'll just keep what I've got and be glad I'm not a web designer.

Date: 2008-07-06 08:00 Subject: Which is weirder... Security: Public Current Mood: hopeful

That I'm camped out in front of Nintendo World to get a Wii Fit, or that I'm below the median age of the people in line?

Edit at 9:40: We got here at about 7:45 and were about 15th in line. There was a signup sheet on the wall, which turned out to be a scam. The legitimate folks just handed out wristbands, and we're in, with maybe 20 more behind us.

OTOH, one person in line was 30th yesterday and didn't get one.

OK, back to waiting for the 11:00 open.

Edit at 11:55: Success! Picked up Mario Kart, too, since it's not easy to get out in Jersey.

BTW, they were completely stocked on Wiis.

Date: 2008-07-05 16:25 Subject: D'oh! Security: Public Current Mood: disappointed

Whenever someone does a voice post, it completely clobbers my custom Scrabble LJ theme. I've never gotten around to finding and fixing whatever bug in my hacked up S2 code causes it. I usually just switch over to a new theme then switch back when the voice post moves off my first friends page.

This just happened for the first time in several months, and in the meantime, LJ has come up with a much cleaner way of switching themes. They give you a nice list of theme types, one of which is "your custom layers". Cool. Switched to a different one, no muss, no fuss.

Came time to switch back, I told it to apply my custom theme, and BOOM, I'm right back at the unadorned "Refried Paper" theme, on which mine was based.

I've got a backup of my mods someplace, but I think instead of searching all over for them, I'll make a new one using a different base theme. Refried Paper had a lot of quirks in it that "Expressive," "Flexible Squares," etc., don't. And the code is very unmodular; I found myself copying huge functions just to make one-line changes that should rightly have been parameterized out.

But the whole point of this is that if you have customizations you want to keep, make backup copies before you switch, because they may disappear into the LJ ether...

Date: 2008-06-27 09:38 Subject: Things you need to see Security: Public Current Mood: lol

...especially if you're any sort of system administrator or tech support person:

http://thewebsiteisdown.com

As to work-safeness, consider it rated PG-13 for sidelong sexual references, use of the "F" word, and whatever effect your literal LOL will have on your cow-orkers.

Thanks to blamedstarlie for the link.

Date: 2008-06-26 15:57 Subject: Infinite TLDs Security: Public Current Mood: amused

Something I have been wanting to see for years is going to happen. People and organizations will be able to create their own top-level domains, alongside .com, .org, etc. I won't be looking to snap up .horch any time soon, because initially, it's going to be a very expensive process.

Some people are saying that it's going to be hard for corporations, because there will be that many more places they have to register their names. It'll be like whitehouse.com (no link because that's a porn site) to the nth degree. Every company would have to register their name in thousands of places.

I think it's the exact opposite. Sure, Microsoft will still want microsoft.com, but so what if I own the .urinal-cakes TLD? You think anyone at Microsoft will lose any sleep because they haven't registered microsoft.urinal-cakes when they already have anything-they-want.microsoft?

That said, what top-level domain would you want, why, and what subdomains would you want?

Whoops, I just double checked. TLDs have to be letters only in any alphabet, according to the above article. So much for strongbad.compy.386, and my other example would have to be something like microsoft.urinalוcakes.

Date: 2008-06-25 13:43 Subject: $CALL Security: Public Current Mood: amused

So I get this email from AAA talking about the super fantastic price I can get on a new car from them. I'm curious. So I spec out a nicely equipped Prius (which, availability-wise, is Toyota-ese for "Wii Fit"). Then it said, "fill in your contact information and on the next page you'll see your super fantastic price." And that price turned out to be:

( Wait for it... )

Date: 2008-06-22 10:09 Subject: Scott Kalitta Security: Public Current Mood: sad

Not many people who read this know that I'm a lifelong drag racing fan. Only one relative is (my uncle who lives in Nevada) and none of my friends are, which is why I've never been to an event. I almost talked myself into taking Himself to Englishtown this weekend, but man am I glad I didn't. I would hate to have to explain to him that one of the top drivers died in a crash--even worse if we had gone yesterday and he had actually seen it.

As with so many who have gone before him, my hope is that analysis of what happened will help to make the sport that much safer. The physics of drag racing are staggering--power, speed, acceleration, temperatures, pressures, viscosities, coefficients of friction, all of it. It's a wonder it can be done at all. That so few drivers die or are seriously injured any more, compared with decades ago where the cars were basically nitro-powered coffins, is little short of miraculous.

It doesn't make it any easier for those few or their families, though.

Date: 2008-06-20 11:35 Subject: thefridayfive Security: Public Current Mood: restless

I haven't done one of these in a long time.

1. Did you get an allowance as a kid, and if so, how much was it?

When I was about six, I got twenty cents (about a dollar in today's money)--A nickel of that went into the piggy bank, another nickel into the collection plate at church, and the remaining dime usually went to the candy store. By the time I was old enough for a raise, my parents switched to a paid-chores system (that made prison wages seem like backdated CEO stock options).

2. How old were you when you had your first job, and what was it?

Thirteen: People brought newspapers to the local high school for recycling one Saturday a month. My job was to unload the papers from their cars into a semi trailer. If you were lucky, they came bundled, and the driver would help. The worst was when it was over 100F, a Cadillac drove up, the driver sat in the A/C, and popped the trunklid remotely, to reveal the trunk completely full of loose paper. Rainy days weren't too unpleasant, but the work was smelly and dangerous.

3. Which do you do better: save money or spend money?

I save money more consistently than I spend it well, because the savings all comes out of my paycheck before I have a chance to squander it. reillye has done a good job of throttling back my dumb spending.

4. Are people more likely to borrow money from you, or are you more likely to borrow from them?

Neither, as long as you don't count trivial stuff like me getting the pizza this time and you getting it next time. I learned long ago that "lending" money in moderate amounts (under $1000) falls under the "never bet more than you can afford to lose" rule, and as such, I usually consider loans like that to be gifts, and anything that's repaid is "found money".

5. What's the most expensive thing you've ever bought?

My house, natch. Other than houses and cars, our biggest purchases have been improvements to the house, like the new kitchen in 1999.

Date: 2008-06-10 09:36 Subject: So maybe I did overdo it a little Security: Public Current Mood: rejuvenated

This past Sunday was a bit of a full day. The temp was in the mid 90s with dewpoints in the mid 70s. This didn't stop me from a) going to the church picnic, b) power-washing our deck, swing set and outdoor furniture, c) fulfilling my Bridgewater Baseball work bond.

Let me explain that last bit. Bridgewater Baseball is a big operation, with over 2000 kids participating. They need lots of volunteer help, so every family has to pay a "work bond" of $100. If you do four hours of volunteer work during the season, you get your work bond back, otherwise you don't. I signed up to do a four-hour shift selling drinks, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc., in the "snack shack", the concession stand at the biggest of several ball field complexes in town. When I arrived for my 4:00-8:00pm shift, it was about 95F out, and inside the snack shack it was 10-15 degrees hotter (no A/C). I drank at least a half gallon of fluids (Gatorade and tea), and peed exactly once. The rest was, shall we say, evaporative cooling. I made it through OK, if pretty tired.

Yesterday, I got up at the normal time, and could barely move. It was as if I hadn't slept at all. After Himself got on the bus to school (which itself was let out early because of the heat, same today), I went back to bed and slept for another three hours. When I got back up I still felt like I hadn't slept. I worked from home for a few hours, but basically slacked. By the evening, I still didn't have enough energy even to make it to Scrabble club. I went to bed early and feel OK today.

Not sure if it was heat-related, a 24-hour bug or what, but I'm glad it's over.

Date: 2008-06-10 09:30 Subject: Lucky thirteen! Security: Public Current Mood: loved

Happy anniversary, reillye! Sucks to be the rest of the world, because I got the best!

*smooch*

Today's weather brought back our biggest fear about an outdoor wedding. Thankfully, June 10, 1995 had just slightly above normal temperatures. I can't imagine what it would have been like on June 10, 2008, with the temp pushing 100F. (Actually, I can imagine--we made sure there was an indoor space available in case of bad weather, but you get the point.)

Date: 2008-06-03 23:55 Subject: Matt Pinfield made me a DJ Security: Public Current Mood: nostalgic

Matt may be famous now, but there's no name-drop cred with him here in central Jersey. Knowing Matt implies nothing more than you hung out in the clubs (and the record stores) in New Brunswick in the mid 80's.

Back in those days, when he was still at WRSU, he used to DJ these monthly dances at Rutgers. I used to help set up the gear, which was brought by someone else. Well, one night, Matt and the organizers got their signals crossed. I used to bring a few records of my own for tuning up the sound system. The start time came and went, and no Matt. So I played what I had, and sent some people to my house to get more records. So yeah, my first record crate was a laundry basket, but there was enough for me to get through the night, and I was hooked on the DJ thing.

Now Matt's at WRXP (nee CD101.9), and having listened for a bit, I now know what those market-research calls I got over the last several months ago were leading up to.

So Matt, were it not for you, this userpic could never have been taken.

Date: 2008-06-03 09:50 Subject: How about a free-form automobilia meme? Security: Public Current Mood: risk-taking

Not very much fun at all: Car shopping.
Sad enough to try to avoid: Saying goodbye to a car you love.

The Audi is past due for its 120,000 mile service. It also has a few niggling problems. I took it to the dealer near where I work (since some of the niggling problems are too Audi-specific to be fixed by our primary-care mechanic). Here's how the estimate broke down:

Major service: $900
Moonroof occasionally opens by itself: Replace switch, $130
Driver's door window sometimes gets stuck: Replace window guides, $230
Check engine light: Replace right catalytic converter: $1800
CVT clutch occasionally slow to engage: Replace CVT for the bargain price of seven thousand five hundred US dollars

This car, with its high mileage, only blue-books for about $8000, so we have to think about possibly replacing it. Did I mention it's an Audi? The A6 that reillye gave me for my dot-com boom 40th birthday? You know, the nicest car I've ever owned and probably ever will? The one that, modulo a couple parking-lot dings and a slightly dirty interior, is in near-showroom condition? I'm not ready to give it up just yet!

So here's what I decided to do: The car is up for inspection this month. If it passes, I won't worry about the catalytic converter. I'll have the major service done locally--no need to spend $108/hour for the basic stuff. I'll hold off on the window and moonroof until and unless I need something else done at the dealer.

As for the tranny: They based their statement that I needed a new one solely on my description of the symptom, although what they wrote on the service order sounds worse than what I'm seeing. I've driven lots of cars, enough to know by sound and feel when there's a real drivability problem, and I'm not seeing it here. So I'm going to bet $7500 and towing by AAA that the CVT's not going to fall out any time soon, and just have the fluid and filters changed.

Suppose the worst happens, and I have to buy a new car NOW. It's Prius time. For those of you in that market, given that all hybrids are in high demand these days, how hard is it to get a Prius? Is the wait long? Are they charging thousands over sticker? Does it come with an appropriate set of Politically Correct Bumper Stickers or do I have to supply those myself?

Date: 2008-05-27 10:18 Subject: Not that I don't love the midwest Security: Public Current Mood: vicariously sad

...but it's times like these that make me very glad I don't live in tornado country any more. A few of the years we were there, spring was like life during wartime. There were severe weather warnings almost every afternoon, and every morning you woke up wondering if today was the day your house (and maybe your family) was going to get it. It may get miserably hot and humid here in NJ (the heat index once hit 129F), but I'll take it over fist-of-God supercells any day.

Date: 2008-05-24 20:57 Subject: Croup, croupier, croupiest Security: Public Current Mood: relieved

So at 11:30 last night, Herself wakes up coughing with a sound I've only ever heard come out of sea lions. We took her outside, to no avail. We put her in the bathroom with the shower generating enough steam to warp a granite countertop. That worked, but as soon as we turned the water off and the humidity started to drop, the coughing started back up.

Pediatrician's office closed, natch. Call number at the local children's hospital goes straight to voice mail. Emergency call number at the local children's hospital goes unanswered.

Pow-wow: Herself is not cyanotic, so there's no immediate danger. But taking her out of the humidity could make things get much worse. We decide she needs to be seen by *someone*, since we've been through a lot as parents, but neither kid has had croup before. Even though the nearest hospital is less than ten minutes away, we're certainly not prepared to treat acute respiratory distress, should it arise en route. So we call 911.

A short while later, I'm waking himself to tell him not to freak out about the houseful of police, EMTs, and ambulance squad folks. He will remember none of it in the morning. We've called a friend to act as a human baby monitor for Himself while we're at the hospital. We choose the more distant children's hospital since they have a pediatric ER--no sense showing herself what the Friday Night Knife and Gun Club looks like.

I know this was totally non-emergent (no lights or siren), but did we have to hit *every* stop light?

And the adventure part is over. Yep, it's garden variety croup, she's on oral prednisolone, and she's basically fine. We got home about 3:00am, and the worst consequence was having to tell herself that she couldn't go to the park because she's contagious. Aside from the cough, low-grade fever and overall reduced energy, she feels fine.

We were the best off of anyone in that ER last night.

Date: 2008-05-18 14:09 Subject: Seven interests Security: Public Current Mood: relaxed

Comment on this post and I will choose seven interests from your profile. You will then explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.

Requested by blamedstarlie:

TiVo: Revolutionized the way we watch TV. No more racing home to catch a specific show. No more screwed-up VCR programming. And a much cleaner user interface than the DVRs most cable companies provide.

Tom kha gai: Thai chicken soup made with coconut milk and lemongrass. It's what got me hooked on Thai food, even though it's so bad for you.

Palak paneer: An Indian dish made from spinach ("palak", sometimes called "saag"), paneer, cilantro and other spices, it might be my absolute favorite food. Its close cousin, aloo saag, substitutes potatoes for the cheese.

Veronica Mars: Some shows are worth watching just for the dialogue. This was one of them, but it also explored the ramifications of wide socioeconomic differences within a small community. It was unceremoniously cancelled a couple years ago.

Cribbage: An overly complicated card game that's popular on my mother's side of the family. My grandfather is the only one who can beat me on a regular basis, but having read a couple of books on the game, it's clear I'm still a living-room player, nowhere near tournament skill.

Unitarian Universalism: My adopted religion. The Catholic Church's theology didn't work for me, nor did their stance on social issues. Most other organized religions also claim to know much more about God and cosmology than I think any human can. At worst, they discard all scientific knowledge in favor of an unprovable supernatural view of the universe. OTOH, UUism has no set creed to which people are expected to adhere. Instead, the religion provides a framework within which each person find and comes to terms with their own answers to the Big Questions. It's a whole lot harder than following a preset gospel, but it's also a lot more spiritually fulfilling.

Seven Principles: The closest thing Unitarian Universalism has to commandments or rules. A common criticism of UUism is that the organization that opposes nothing stands for nothing and that the organization that stands for nothing will fall for anything. Those two sayings may be true, but our principles state clearly what we stand for and what we oppose.