The scariest thing about this costume is that I didn’t have to borrow any of the props.
Bike wreck Halloween costume
Monthly Archives: October 2002
Newly discovered Linux commands: apropos and whatis
The things they don’t tell you about Linux. Ever since I started working with Linux, I’ve been hoping for some kind of reference book or site that would tell me what program to use in order to perform some task. Unix commands are pretty cryptic to the uninitiated, and I find myself fumbling around trying to find the right command to do a particular job. Today, while exploring my shiny new Linux From Scratch system, I ran across the command apropos. Curious, I looked up the man page, and found what I’ve been wanting all this time. apropos (and a companion program, whatis) scan man page descriptions for matches to keywords that you supply on the command line. whatis will tell you what a particular command does (i.e. “whatis ls” will display the man page description of the ls command). apropos searches command names and descriptions for keywords. So “apropos 'list directory'” will display the man page descriptions of all commands that contain the phrase “list directory”. Yes, it’s a small victory. But I’ll take what I can get.
How not to get hit by cars
Bicycle safety is more than just wearing a helmet and obeying the law. That statement might win the “duh” award, but it’s amazing how many people think that the law is going to prevent them from getting creamed. And although a helmet might just save your brain housing group in the event of a crash, it’s much better not to get hit at all. To that end, local Austin cyclist Michael Bluejay has created BicycleSafe.com. His article How to Not Get Hit By Cars is the best practical advice I’ve seen for cyclists. In it, he describes 10 common ways that cyclists get creamed, and gives very good advice on how to avoid each one. His links page has an impressive array of links to cycling resources and advocacy. If you’re a cyclist, visit this site.
Sampling the beer in Fort Worth
I drove up to Fort Worth, Texas yesterday with a co-worker to attend the Human Resources Southwest Conference and Exhibit, where we have a booth. We set up the booth yesterday afternoon, and spent today talking to people as they came by: handing out literature and demonstrating our product. Trade shows are fun in small doses, but I was quite happy when 6:00 rolled around. Tomorrow is going to be painful.
But every cloud has a silver lining. Just across the street from the convention center (more importantly, just two blocks from my hotel) is a little place called Malone’s Pub. It’s not much as far as pubs go, but they have quite a variety of beers in the cooler. Last night I had the pleasure of trying two new (to me) beers, both from the Unibroue brewery. La Fin Du Monde is a blond, flavorful beer with a whopping 9% alcohol content. Fellow brewers understand how difficult it is to get a 9% beer that tastes that good. The other beer I tried was the strong red Maudite, only slightly less potent at 8% alcohol, and just as tasty. I highly recommend both beers, and will be looking for some of Unibroue’s other selections at the local beer outlet.
Alan Cooper on software construction
Visual Studio Magazine ran an interview with Alan Cooper, author of About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design, and The Inmates Are Running the Asylum. The interview focuses on the topic of software construction, which I’ve been pondering recently. I don’t agree with everything that Cooper says in the article, but he does make some very good points, and validates what I and some of my co-workers have been thinking for some time. Software construction (Cooper doesn’t like using the word “development”—see the article for the reasons) can be approached as a craft, or as an engineering discipline. The way you approach it depends on the type and size of the project. Who would have thought that it comes down to “use the right tool for the job”? And there’s no magic all-around hammer.
There’s a lot of food for thought in that article. I highly recommend reading it. I’ve also read his About Face book, and recommend it as well.
Sniper ponderings
I read a lot of crime novels and true crime stories several years ago, and noted that what gets killers caught are patterns that they either fail to notice or insist upon repeating despite the risk. If there’s no pattern in the victims, or the timing or manner of killing, there’s very little for investigators to go on. I had plotted a story in which the killer picks random people in random cities, and using many different methods to kill them. Besides being a depressing thought, I decided not to go ahead with the story for two reasons: 1) I didn’t want to give anybody any ideas (a groundless fear—people already get wacky ideas); and 2) I couldn’t think of any realistic way that the killer could have been caught or even how an investigator could tie the killings together. I’d have to add some brilliant deduction or unbelievable stroke of luck for “The Hero” to get anywhere. I’m not too concerned anymore about giving people ideas-I’m sure there are plenty of nutcases out there who have thought up even more frightening things. Heck, there might even be people out there already doing random killings. I couldn’t come up with a plausible way to get around my second objection, though, without making the story seem contrived. What little I’ve learned about crime scene investigation over the past few years still hasn’t changed my mind. Somebody who just wanted to kill random people could get away with it for quite some time, despite the best efforts of our law enforcement community. It’s a frightening thought.
As you might imagine, it’s the D.C. area sniper who got me to thinking about this again. That one probably would have remained free had he stopped after the 7th or 8th attack. But he’s gotten careless, and will undoubtedly be caught if he continues.
Chris gets a deer
I’ve mentioned before the problems we have with deer in the neighborhood. When we moved here seven years ago we often saw deer, but rarely more than a few at a time. The population has grown steadily over the years (in no small part because our neighbors feed the silly things) to the point where it’s common for us to see a dozen or more deer bedded down in our yard at night. The population is totally out of control.
I mentioned this to my friend Chris last April, and said that I was considering letting some bow hunters onto the property when hunting season rolled around. Imagine my surprise when Chris contacted me and said that he’d bought a bow and had been practicing, and asked if I was serious. He came down last month to scout the place, and arrived this weekend ready to hunt. Yesterday was a bit frustrating for him because, although he’s able to hit a stationary target at 50 yards, the target doesn’t duck, jump, or back up when it hears the arrow coming. Today he got a deer with his second shot. We field dressed it in the front yard, and he packed it in ice for the ride back to Dallas where he and his friend will process it into venison steaks and other such delicacies.
Yes, it’s perfectly legal to hunt deer in my yard. It is hunting season, after all, he had a valid license, and we’re not in the city limits. And although I wouldn’t let somebody hunt with a rifle on my little 1.75 acres, that’s probably legal, too.
Oh, and don’t worry about the deer. There are plenty more.
Round Rock century rained out
Today is the 15th annual Round Rock Outlaw Trail 100. As has been the case for the previous three years, it’s raining today. I’m a bit obsessive about my cycling, but I draw the line at riding 100 miles in a downpour. Have fun, folks, if you decide to ride.
Don’t take these signs literally!
Attached to the wall above the toilet in the aircraft lavatory are two signs. The first reads:
Discarding anything other than toilet tissue may
cause external leaks and create a safety hazard.
The other reads:
Please use the wastebasket for
anything other than toilet tissue.
It’s probably a good thing that people don’t interpret those signs literally.
Mountain biking in Seattle
One benefit of traveling on business is that sometimes I get to visit friends. In that regard, this week’s trip to Seattle was the best ever. After today’s meeting, my friend Dennis came to get me at the hotel, and we headed out east to Carnation where we met Mike for a couple of hours of mountain biking followed by an evening of burgers and beer at a pub in Sammamish. The weather in the Seattle area has been uncharacteristically mild, which made for near perfect trail conditions. I haven’t been mountain biking much recently so my bike handling skills are a bit rusty, but all that road conditioning has left me in reasonably good shape and I was able to keep up with the guys on the trail. Days like today remind me of why I got into mountain biking in the first place. I’d be hard pressed to find better friends than Dennis and Mike. It’s too bad they had to move up to Seattle.
The picture, by the way, is just a bit of goofiness I concocted at the top. You’re looking at a 300 foot vertical drop. I’m standing on a ledge that’s just a few feet below the lip. No, I didn’t climb that, and I didn’t wreck the bike right there.