Surprisingly, this actually generates results:

158 sydney /usr/src/linux: find . \( name \*.c -o -name \*.h \) -exec grep -l 'NO!' {} ';'
./drivers/char/ftape/lowlevel/fdc-io.c
./drivers/net/skfp/pcmplc.c
./drivers/scsi/qla1280.c

Signs that it is going to be a bad Mondy

1. You realize that your car payment is due today (and the bank is an hour away).


2. You attempt to print a check for said payment, but the printer is out of color ink and refuses to print anything, including an entirely black-ink check.


3. You cut yourself while shaving. Badly enough, in fact, to require a band-aid on your face.


4. You dress for work, putting on a button-down shirt, dockers, black socks... and accidentally put sneakers on without realizing it.

Yes. I'm pretty much resigned to writing this Monday off.

Miserable day here. Very wet and rainy, amongst other things.

Computer wouldn't boot this morning. I'm awfully tempted to dump Win 2k -- it seems to get less stable with each supposed critical fix. This morning, winlogon wouldn't run (UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP blue screen). Grr.

We're on the second (and thankfully final) day of our engineering and sales meeting. These suck, because they're planned by sales. They're awful at planning, and what they do plan is utterly pointless. Our group found out that we were supposed to give at update about 5 minutes before the actual presentation.

Heading down to Virginia today. Hopefully the rain won't affect traffic on the turnpike. Heh. Who am I kidding? :-)

Playing financial whiz this evening. Or pretending to...

All too often, I get the feeling of, "Dang, are they billing me again, already?" when reviewing my statements. But every time I go and check, sure enough, it's time for them to bill me again.

Except this time.

I discovered that my web site operator (the folks who host kanga.org on a machine somewhere in the bowels of New Jersey) have been double billing me for the last six months, i.e., billing me twice a month instead of once. It's a small enough amount that it's slipped under my radar screen.

I think it's a bona fide error, though, no malicious intent. There were some changes to my account around that time when it started, so I'm guessing it's operator error. We'll see what they say...

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;;  dac's journal entry

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;;  Copyright (c) 2002 Neolinear, Inc. All rights reserved.

;;  $Id: journal.txt,v 1.1 2002/08/19 13:22:30 dacut Exp $

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Yes.  I think work has finally gotten to me.



 

Don't much feel like working, so I'm ripping CDs to MP3s. I have to say, though, that the LAME encoder used by default in CDEx is, well, lame. Fast, yes. But, oy, does it produce an annoying ringing sound.

Using Blade instead, which is much slower but higher quality. Also allows higher bitrates.

I also have an annoying pain in my gut that's been there since last night. It does seem to be focused on my right side, but I wonder if that's just my imagination since someone I know just had his appendix removed. Seems to be diminishing... if this keeps up, though, I'll have to see a doctor or something.

Bah. I'm a wimp. I'm typing this from work.

Hm.

"Today's air pollution forecast for Pittsburgh: Air Quality: Unhealthy. Pollutant: Ozone." It's also supposed to get up above 90. Ugh.

Maybe I should try working from home today. Hrm...

Return from Paradise...

Well, I'm back. Interestingly, while I was in the air on US Airways, they filed for bankruptcy. Fortunately, they didn't force us off the plane at 33,000 feet.

Reunion was terrific! Sooo many people I haven't seen in ten years. They're all doing well; most are married with one or two kids. Most are still in the San Diego-ish area, but somewhat northward -- many people are fleeing to Temecula due to absurd housing costs in Escondido (where I'm from, about 40 min north of downtown SD).

Just as before, the cheerleader/football people were pleased to see us geeks, and vice-versa. I guess we had an atypical class in that regard. A lot of them were taking honors classes and such, and certainly did not fit the "dumb jock/airheaded cheerleader" stereotype. This pleases me.

Sandy Eggo!

Heading off to visit my ol' stomping grounds. It's my high school class' 10th reunion.

Yes, that makes me an old geezer to many of you. But I'll be an old geezer in San Diego, so :-P

Wedding invitations: done!

Well, the first batch, anyway, which is everyone we had addresses for. We were over the 1 oz limit, so they're all going out with 60c netstamps rather than the 37c normal stamps.

Lowest zip code: 02139
Highest zip code: 99762
Shortest distance: 0.3 miles, zip code 15232
Longest distance: 7,503 miles, Okinawa, Japan 901-2303

Got my Lord of the Rings DVD today! Yay!

Morning meeting went ok. Jon (NeoCell chief) pointed out some deficiencies in my (very abstract, very high-level, very rough draft) design, which is a good thing. Not what I wanted to hear, of course, but sometimes what I want is not what is good for me. This feedback will help me to refine the design.

Nonetheless, the idea is fundamentally sound, or so it seems. Unusual, yes, and there's a large risk of customers refusing to adopt the idea. It could be a big flop. But what invention that was worth a damn did not have such a risk?

Of course, the riskiness of an idea is not an indication of its goodness. As mathematicians would say, riskiness is a necessary but not sufficient property of a good idea.

I'm not feeling well, and I don't know why.

I've been jittery the last few days, butterflies-in-the-stomach-type of a feeling. On the plus side, this has suppressed my appetite a bit. I'm guessing it's stress-related combined with my excessive intake of coffee.

I'm proposing a fairly dramatic shift in direction of some projects at work, which brings the necessary politicking. Campaigning for a technological decision is not unfamiliar territory to me, but it still wears me down. And then there are the wedding-related items, a trip next weekend, trying to play money-manager with stocks, ... oy.

At least it looks like we're going to get some desperately-needed rain here today:

The National Weather Service says severe thunderstorms may develop
over the head of the Ohio region this afternoon and tonight.  Wind
gusts could exceed 60 mph and hail could reach 1 inch in size.  If 
rain amounts go over 2 inches, there will be ponding of water in  
locations with poor drainage. 

The high heat and humidity will help develop scattered thunderstorms  
by late afternoon. National Weather Service Pittsburgh expects a  
front, from the Great Lakes, will move slowly southward across the  
head of the Ohio region tonight... and this may help storms to become  
better organized and severe.  

Consequently, the skywarn net may need to be activated late this  
afternoon and tonight.  Stay tuned for updates.