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What Is A Veteran?

2011-11-11T08:42:00.001-06:00

What is a Veteran?

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.

You can't tell a vet just by looking.

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies
unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protestor to burn the flag."

Father Denis Edward O'Brien/USMC

'X' Marks the Spot

2009-11-16T11:34:00.003-06:00

280
300
299
879

That's what my son bowled a couple weeks ago.

The second-highest series ever bowled in Nebraska. (The highest is Jeremy Sonnenfeld's perfect 900 series bowled in 1997 - the first-ever sanctioned 900 series.)

He spared the second frame of the first game (left a 4-pin with the first shot), then threw 33 straight strikes, finishing with a standing 10-pin on his last ball. According to him, he just got lucky. He was in 'the zone', where every ball just seemed to head for the pocket, and everything carried. He said he has been in the same zone before, but without the carry, and only bowled 650. This time, though, everything just came together. Most people in the center didn't even know what was going on, since he is a calm, methodical bowler. Sure, they had heard his 300 game announced, but that wasn't so unusual; it was his sixth or seventh of the season. And that's not counting all the 280s and 290s. Heck, he had even thrown an 835 series just a few weeks earlier.

But when he released that last ball, you could hear a pin drop, followed by pandemonium when it slammed into the pins.

He's glad he bowled it at Leopard Lanes, his "home" center. (So is Mickey, the proprietor.) Of course, it means that the 220+ average he carries everywhere else is overshadowed by his 236 average at Leopard. When he bowls tournaments, he has to use his higher one. :-D

Calling All Dawns

2009-09-26T14:27:00.003-05:00

Day. Night. Dawn.

Life. Death. Rebirth.

The circle of life, the inter-connectedness of human life and society. These are themes explored by Christopher Tin in his debut album, Calling All Dawns.

The album is a song-cycle in three uninterrupted movements: day, night, and dawn (corresponding to life, death, and rebirth). It is a tapestry of interconnected motifs, the main melody of one song becoming the instrumental interlude in another. The last song fades seamlessly into the first, reflecting the cyclical nature of the universe.

The twelve songs are sung in twelve languages, ranging from Swahili to Polish, from French to Farsi to Maori. The lyrics are from sources as diverse as religious texts like the Torah and Bhagavad Gita, to ancient Persian and Japanese poetry, to lyrics by contemporary writers. Vocal traditions include African choral music, opera, medieval chant, Irish keening, and more.

The opening song, Baba Yetu, is familiar to all players of the Civilization 4 video game. This award-winning song (The Lord's Prayer, sung in Swahili by the Soweto Gospel Choir) sets the initial tone perfectly, with its thrilling drums and stirring music, celebrating life. (If you are unfamiliar with the song, think The Lion King - Circle of Life.)

The second song, Mado Kara Mieru (Through the Window I See) is also stirring. The lyrics are adapted from a Japanese haiku series that looks at Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring again. Third is the Mandarin Dao Zai Fan Ye (The Path is Returning), also a poem on the cyclic nature of life.

Fourth is the Portuguese Se É Pra Vir Que Venha (Whatever Comes, Let it Come), with its theme, "I do not fear life, nor its counterpoint. Whatever comes, let it come." The final song in the "Day" movement is French, Rassemblons-Nous (Let us Gather). It is another strong celebration of Life.

The "Night" movement begins with Lux Aeterna (Eternal Light). The words are from the Requiem Mass, "Let eternal light shine upon them, O Lord, grant them eternal rest." This piece, while still showing some of the triumphal horns of the "Life" movement, is clearly a transition to a slower, darker phase. The seventh song is Caoineadh (To Cry), an Irish keen, a most haunting, yet beautiful piece. The last piece of "Night" is the Polish Hymn do Trójcy Świętej (Hymn to the Holy Trinity). It starts out quiet and somber, but as it progresses, there are hints of the dawn to come, the triumph of light over dark, the rebirth of life.

"Dawn" begins with the Hebrew Hayom Kadosh (Today is Sacred), from the Book of Nehemiah. "Do not mourn and do not weep, for this day is sacred." It is definitely a turn back to the light, to the new day. It segues into the Farsi Hamsáfár (Journey Together), easily on of my favorite pieces from this work. The music is a celebration of this new day, this rebirth on the universal wheel.

The Sanskrit Sukla-Krsne (Light and Darkness) is the penultimate piece. Probably one of my least favorite pieces, yet it fits musically into the whole, and the work would be diminished without it. The final piece is Kia Hora Te Marino (May Peace be Widespread), from a traditional Maori blessing. It gathers together threads that have run throughout the cycle, and wraps them up in a grand finale. The cycle is complete, the new day has dawned bright and full. It ends with the opening notes of Baba Yetu, and if played continuously, smoothly flows into that song once more.

To check out samples from this album, please visit Christopher Tin's website.

Deer: Dangerous on the Road

2009-08-23T13:43:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, my wife and I had to run up to Boy Scout Camp Cedars, up by Fremont, to pick up our oldest grandson who had spent the night for a Nani-ba-zhu festival. (It's a bit complicated. As a member of the Order of the Arrow, he has also been inducted into the local Nani-ba-Zhu 'tribe' as a Brave. He spent Saturday making his 'regalia': headdress, necklace, arm bustles, etc.)

We picked him up about 6:30, and headed home. It was an hour-plus drive, and about 7:00, with the sun sitting fairly low in the western sky behind me, we crossed the Platte River into Douglas County. As we came over the bridge, some motion caught my eye. A deer (doe) was bounding through the tall grass down in the tall grass ahead to the right. Something told me to be careful, so I eased off the gas and pointed her out to my wife. I had one car behind me, a friend of ours with her Scout coming home, and oncoming were four motorcycles, followed at some distance by another car.

Moments after we came off the bridge, the deer decided she simply had to be on the other side of the road, and launched herself directly in front of my car. I stomped on the brake, expecting the sickening THUD as I hit her. Instead, as if by a miracle we missed her. At the same instant, i thought, "Oh my God! The motorcycles!', and out of the corner of my eye I saw her hit the lead biker.

I watched the deer, bike, and rider go sliding down the pavement in my mirror as I pulled over to the side. Our friend pulled over right in front of us, but I was already out the door, heading back to see if there was any help I could provide. The car behind the bikes had already pulled over and was calling 911 as I arrived. Two of the bikers were pulling the bike and the deer to the side of the road, while the third was dragging his friend, in a sitting position, to the other side.

As I got there, fully expecting to see a bloody, mangled body, I found the biker, a fairly large man, almost laughing! "Good thing I hit it, and not one of you little guys! Probably would have killed you!" We gave him a quick check over to be sure how he was. He said his ankle hurt - probably busted, but maybe just badly sprained. He took off his helmet (not a scratch on it), and his leather jacket. The left sleeve, from wrist to elbow, was torn up, and he had a little "road-rash" up by his elbow. That appeared to be the extent of his injuries. He said that with the sun setting, and in his eyes, he didn't even see the deer until they collided.

Meanwhile, my wife had also called 911, and was able to give them more exact directions to the accident site. Two Sheriff cars soon pulled up, followed shortly by a Rescue Vehicle. After the Deputies took statements, the biker was loaded into the Rescue Squad to be transported to a hospital, and we were on our way.

After we got home, and before the sun fully set, we took a look at our bumper. We saw two new dings on the driver's side, right where the deer's rear hooves might have hit. It makes us think that we might have altered the deer's path just enough so that, instead of the biker hitting her head on, and possibly doing a header over the handlebars, instead she was twisted sideways and hit him in the side taking the bike out from under him, and possibly even serving as a "cushion" for him during the critical first moments of the slide down the pavement.

Oh, No! My Computer Is Infected!

2009-08-18T14:16:00.001-05:00

A little tale about malware.

A Lovely Weekend

2009-08-11T15:18:00.002-05:00

What a lovely weekend it was.

The temperature Saturday officially topped out at less than 100, but the heat index rose well above that. My wife was gone to Iowa for the weekend with the Girl Scouts, camping. (Well, they had air-conditioned cabins, thankfully, but it was still "camping".) She had our daughter, and two granddaughters with her. The two grandsons still left home went with the Boy Scouts to Kansas City to Worlds Of Fun for the day, so once I dropped them off at the collection point at 7:00am, I didn't have to leave the house again until I had to pick them up 15 hours later. So I buried myself in the barely adequate air conditioning, did some laundry, fixed a child's wooden rocker for a friend (a little wood glue can work wonders ;)), watched some movies, etc. Nice and quiet, even if too hot.

Sunday, the fun began. First, no solid food for the next 24+ hours. Clear liquids only. And nothing with red/purple food dyes. Lime Jello was as solid as it got. At 9:30 I had to leave for the nursing home to supervise the Community Service kids. Hungry. And it looks like rain. I check the weather radar. Sure enough, a line of thunderstorms less than 10 miles away. Sorry, Cocoa and Cleo, I'll put you dogs out after I get home at lunchtime. You won't like it out there pretty soon. Sure enough, less than 3 miles down the road, big, fat raindrops start splattering the windshield. By the time I get to the nursing home, there's lightning all around, and the rain is pouring down. The storms continue off and on all day.

By quarter to twelve, I'm done at the nursing home, so I drive up to the 72nd Street Flea Market to pick up the bed rails for a bunkbed we bought for the grandsons a couple weeks earlier. I had put it together, and found three of the four rails were missing. We informed the lady we bought it from, and she had called back to say she had found them. But the Flea Market is only open Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday. I picked up the rails, dropped them at my daughter's and headed home. It had stopped raining for the moment, so the dogs went out back. By now I was starving. Broth was on the list of allowed liquids, so I heated up a can of beef broth and drank it down. By now, it tasted delicious. I went upstairs and killed time waiting for my wife to get home by installing KDE4.3 on my computer. About 3:00pm, I noticed I was getting quite a headache. I went back downstairs and checked the beef broth can. There it was, the 3rd ingredient was salt/sodium. I went back upstairs, relaxed a few minutes, and checked my blood pressure. 156/103. Not high enough to go to the ER, but high enough to give me a good headache. And I couldn't take my medication until Monday.

Finally, about 5:00pm, my wife got home. She's exhausted. Since the thunderstorms are rolling east, she had to fight through them all the way home. Plus, between sick Scouts, arthritic knees, and an uncomfortable bed, she figures she only got about 4 hours of sleep since Friday. During a lull in the rain, we bring in what has to be brought in from the car, and I let her lie down on the bed. Then I tell her it's time I started. She agrees, and reminds me I have to drink the whole gallon in three hours.

GoLitely is a special electrolyte mixture designed to clean your gastro-intestinal system of anything more solid than water. And not leave much of that, either. You drink an 8-oz glass every 10 minutes or so. Chugging is preferable to sipping. And it tastes awful. Like glass after glass of salty water. The instructions say you should notice the effects within an hour of the first glass. They are correct. After that, keep a clear path between you and the bathroom. If there is a second bathroom in the house, so your family can use one while you have complete access to the other, so much the better. GoLitely works by causing a massive influx of water from the rest of your system into your intestinal tract, which then gets flushed out. Repeatedly. "... until the watery stool is clear."

I managed about 3 liters before nausea wouldn't let me swallow any more of the stuff. My "stool was clear", so I decided that was enough. It turns out that most people don't finish a whole gallon. If you have less than a quart left, before you quit, you're doing good.

Monday morning, 7:00 am, my wife takes my to the endoscopy clinic. A pleasant nurse greets us, makes sure I'm the person their records show, that I'm there for a colonoscopy, etc. She has me change into a hospital gown (open to the rear, of course), and gets me situated on a gurney. Then she tries to start an IV, for administering the sedative and any other medication during the procedure. Now, I've never had a problem with giving blood, or having IVs started. Wrap the rubber band around my arm, pump my fist a couple times, and the veins stand right out for easy access. Not this time. After trying and failing, she apologizes, and says she will have the anesthesiologist do it, since he's more experienced. "It's really unfair. First, we dehydrate you, then we stick you in a cold room, and then we expect your veins to have blood in them!"

A little later, I'm in the OR, lying on my side, and they push the sedative into the IV. Next thing I know, it's a couple hours later, and I'm in Recovery. After I'm sufficiently functional, I get dressed and my wife drives me home, where I spend most of the rest of the day in bed.

Diagnosis: slight diverticulosis (common in over-50s -- a high-fiber diet keeps problems at bay), prostate looks normal, and a polyp was snipped out for biopsy. We'll get the results of that in two weeks.

R.I.P. Ellie Mae

2009-06-08T14:00:00.003-05:00

This weekend, my old Basset Hound, Ellie Mae, passed away. She was twelve and a half years old. She was ours for over ten years. We had rescued her from going to the pound when her previous owner complained that he received too many "noise" tickets because of her barking.

She fit in well with the family, and got along fine with her new canine buddies. She was no noisier than any other dog in the neighborhood. Her only significant quirk was that she hated having her feet, particularly her toes, touched. This made nail trimming a real adventure.

She loved running in the back yard, complaining about the soccer players in the park beyond our yard when they kicked the ball too close to our fence. She also loved chasing squirrels and rabbits (and the occasional possum) letting them know this was her yard! I remember a couple of times she chased rabbits under our back shed, and managed to burrow so well after them that she got stuck, and I had to get the bottle jack from the van and jack up the side of the shed until she could wriggle free.

A couple of years ago she got into a fight with our lab/spaniel mix dog. They had had spats over the years, as siblings are wont to do, but never anything too serious. This time, though, her back legs and belly were quite torn up. Fortunately, a Basset has very loose skin, so most of the injuries were superficial skin tears, and little damage to the underlying muscles or organs. I helped her inside, to a blanket in the corner of the living room, cleaned her up, and nursed her back to health. Twice a day I carried her up the steps to the front door, so she could go out and relieve herself. Then back down to the living room. As soon as she could walk the stairs by herself, I started taking her for walks, to help her regain strength in her legs. It was during this time that she seriously attached herself to me.

As she was recovering, near Christmas, 2006, her other best buddy, another basset named Gypsy, died suddenly. That night, despite below-zero temperatures, she insisted on running instead of walking, and went over half a mile before I could convince her to slow down. I think it was a release of energy she had pent up, grieving for her friend. After that, our walks returned to walks, with the occasional jog-trot thrown in.

Fully-recovered from her mauling, she was spending most of her time with Coco, the lab, and Cleo, our son's new basset puppy.

Six months later, it happened again.

We have never figured out what triggered the fights. I do know that as she got older, Ellie never appreciated puppy exuberance. Up to the end, she would growl at Cleo whenever she bounced up to her. And Coco, despite being of an age with Ellie, has never outgrown her puppy-like exuberance. She doesn't know how to not bounce. I believe that Coco just wanted to play with Ellie like she played with Cleo: bouncing and rough-housing, and Ellie just wasn't having it.

Whatever the reason, it was back to nursemaid for me. This time it was over three weeks before she was back sleeping in her kennel. My wife and I also decided that she wasn't going to be allowed out with the other two dogs, unsupervised. My new morning routine was now to let Coco and Cleo out into the back yard, and then either hook Ellie up in the front yard, or take her for a walk, letting her back in when I left for work. In the evenings, when my wife and I sometimes sit on the patio in the swing, she would jump up between us, and insist on me giving her a belly rub.

Last Monday, I noticed she wasn't eating her regular dry food. She was drinking, though, and readily consumed the soft treats I gave her. Tuesday was more of the same, but now she was listless, and hardly seemed to have the energy to climb the steps to the front door. Wednesday and Thursday she rallied somewhat. Her eyes regained some sparkle, and she would even sit up when she heard my wife come downstairs. We tried plying her with soft dog food, but she never ate much of it. Water and treats were still good, though. Friday, she seemed to relapse, and when I came to put her to bed for the night, she couldn't get her back legs to support her. So I carried her to her kennel and helped her go in and lie down. I figured if she wasn't any better in the morning, I'd take her to the vet, knowing he'd probably just put her to sleep.

Saturday morning, I woke to hear her crying and barking. When I got down to her kennel, she was gone.

35 Years

2009-05-14T11:31:00.002-05:00

Memorial Day weekend my wife and I will celebrate 35 years of marriage. We have been together for 2/3rds of our lives. And she is still my Sweetheart; the only woman I ever want to be with.

How does one celebrate spending so much time together? In our case, Friday night we will spend with a few thousand baseball fans, watching an Omaha Royals baseball game with our grandchildren. After the game, we will head out to the car, grab our tent and sleeping bags, and head for the outfield to join several hundred others in the annual Girl/Boy Scout campout in Rosenblatt Stadium.

Saturday morning, we have just enough time to pack and load the van, before we have to head down to Platte River State Park, where the oldest grandson will be joining some other Scouts from his troop for a 10-mile hike, as part of their preparation for going to Philmont later this summer.

We hope to round out the weekend by going to see Night at the Museum II, without any grandkids in tow. Then we can use Monday to recuperate, so we can make it through the rest of the week.

I Think I Have A.A.A.D.

2009-04-03T12:18:00.004-05:00

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway,
I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage,
I notice mail on the porch table that
I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table,
Put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table,
And notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back
On the table and take out the garbage first.

But then I think,
Since I'm going to be near the mailbox
When I take out the garbage anyway,
I may as well pay the bills first.
I take my check book off the table,
And see that there is only one check left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study,
So I go inside the house to my desk where
I find the can of Coke I'd been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks,
But first I need to push the Coke aside
So that I don't accidentally knock it over.

The Coke is getting warm,
And I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke,
A vase of flowers on the counter
Catches my eye-- they need water.

I put the Coke on the counter and
Discover my reading glasses that
I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk,
But first I'm going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter,
Fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote.
Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV,
I'll be looking for the remote,
But I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table,
So I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs,
But first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers,
But quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back on the table,
Get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to
Remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:
The car isn't washed
The bills aren't paid
There is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter
The flowers don't have enough water,
There is still only 1 check in my check book,
I can't find the remote,
I can't find my glasses,
And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today,
I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day, And I'm really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem,
And I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail....

Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!

PS: I just realized somebody left the hose running in the driveway....

(Found on the internet)

A little humor

2009-03-31T15:32:00.001-05:00

My middle grandson (the one with ADHD and Asperger's) was musing the other day, as is his wont, and he popped up with, "What if you had a threaded rod stuck in your head?"

His older brother seized the moment, and without hesitation declared:

"You'd be screwed!"

Spring

2009-03-24T12:58:00.002-05:00

I guess it's officially Spring: We had our first tornadoes yesterday, and by this weekend we'll be seeing snow....

Cancer

2009-02-19T15:07:00.000-06:00

Well, the scary part is over.

Back last fall, my wife had a routine medical checkup. It included having a mammogram taken. When the radiologist reviewed the films, he saw a shadow he didn't like. He discussed it with my wife and her doctor, and they all agreed that a biopsy should be performed. So in early December, she spent a morning in the surgery clinic while they stuck some needles in through the side of her breast, and snipped out bits of tissue.

Just before Christmas, we got the initial word: not cancerous. So after the holidays, they went over the results. The radiologist wasn't happy. The mass was tough, fibrous. The sample they had gotten was much smaller than he would have liked. In his experience, over 80% of masses like that proved to be cancerous. He recommended doing another, surgical, biopsy, to get a larger sample. The doctor left it up to my wife. They could go back in, or, since the test came back clean, they could wait, and watch it to see if it changed.

In my wife's opinion, it was obviously something that shouldn't be there. If they went back in, was there any reason not to remove it completely? Both her doctor and the radiologist agreed that it would be a logical thing to do.

On February 9, she spent another morning in surgery. They removed a fibroid mass with a volume of eight cubic centimeters (about the size of a golf ball). It was rather deep, right against the chest wall, so it had been very difficult to feel. This time she had a couple of incisions, about an inch or so long each, again along the outside of her breast. More painful, and much more bleeding/bruising, that the needle biopsy.

This morning, she had her initial post-op appointment. The verdict: no cancer.

Amazing

2009-02-17T16:35:00.002-06:00

It's awesome what getting a blog post picked up by a feed can do for your stats. On my computer blog, I usually get 10 - 12 hits per day. Sometimes, though, a post gets picked up by a feed service, and the numbers skyrocket.

Case in point, my post PCLinuxOS2009: My Experience, got picked up by tuxmachines. My hit count for the day is now 434. A huge spike! :D

Inauguration Day

2009-01-20T13:53:00.001-06:00

Well, it's inauguration day. The day that "the Magic Negro"¹ gets sworn in as our President.

I see all this hoopla and hubub going on, the "religious" ecstasy of some (many) of his supporters. And I just don't get it. I see an almost desperate attempt to recreate the feeling of "Camelot", back in the early 60s.

As far as I can tell, it's the loony left "wingnuts", the ones who feel guilt and self-loathing for what 'the White man' has accomplished, attributing everything to 'people of color', and that white people stole it all. Guilt for what white people did to black people over a hundred years ago. Like electing a "Black Man" to the Presidency will wash all their guilt away.

And it's not like he's the first Black president! Heck, even Clinton wasn't the first!² (Note: I haven't verified the absolute accuracy of the following data.) Many historians say he is actually the sixth Black President. They cite Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Harding, and Coolidge as the others. The only difference is, none of them publicly acknowledged their ancestery³, but Obama does. Besides, he's the only one who looks black, even though, by blood, he is less black than some of the others.

I guess I can't get excited by him. He is still an unknown quantity. All I really know about him is that his politics are way too far Left, for my liking. I can't find anything he has actually said or done that gives me any warm feelings, whatsoever. As far as I can tell, he was elected to effect 'change'. My question has always been, change to what? All I can see is his socialist leanings.

On the other hand, he can't be worse than Carter. Probably not even worse than Clinton. There's a good chance he will be better than Dubya. I can't say I actually fear for my country, at this time.

But I will be watching....

¹Anyone who wants to think I'm a bigot for using this phrase is free to do so. They should just be aware that its meaning is not what they think it is. It refers to a Black man who, by electing him as the 'Messiah', will wash their sins away, and purge them of their guilt feelings. Just by being in power, he will usher in a new, Socialist order, that will cause all us good, American capitalists to put aside our quest to better ourselves, and instead, reduce our standard of living so that others, who don't want to work, can live the way we would like to.

²In 2001, Clinton was honored as the nation's "first black president" at the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Annual Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C.

³Coolige did acknowledge that his mother had "mixed ancestry".

Welcome to Vietnam!

2008-12-10T19:50:00.003-06:00

This is a War Story, told to me by Terry Curry, one of my co-workers, who was an Air Traffic Controller in Vietnam in 1968.

You could always tell the new pilots to 'Nam. For instance, I was stationed in Danang, working one day, and this Braniff 707 comes on, and asks me to vector him in on a straight, 15-mile long path from due north. I told him this was not advisable (since it took him over North Vietnam), and that the recommended path was to come in from the east, and pop down hard and fast. He refused this choice, telling me he had a bunch of VIPs aboard, and he didn't want to jostle them that much.

"Now that you've announced you're a high-value target, I strongly recommend you let me vector you to a new route."

He still refused, and I didn't have a lot of time to argue. We were pretty busy. So I gave him the route he wanted.

No sooner had he settled into his route, when I got a call from a flight of Navy A4s coming back from the North, who had battle damage and needed to land, ASAP. Now, the A4 lands at 190 mph, while the 707 does 140. I thought a moment, and then had these guys come in over the top of the 707, and drop down in front of him to the field.

I'm guessing he got some jet-wash turbulence, because sure enough, a moment later the 707 was back on the horn. "What the hell was that? You didn't give those guys enough separation!"

"Were you touched?"

"I'm going to write you up! That was insufficient separation! You can't do that!"

"I say again: were you touched?"

"What do you mean, was I touched?"

"I mean, did any part of any of their aircraft physically contact any part of your aircraft?"

"No, but ..."

"In a combat zone, that's called separation. Welcome to Vietnam!"

For the next several minutes, all you could hear was the Navy pilots keying their mikes, laughing and hollering.

A little bit later, I got a phone call. "Curry, the commander wants to see you at end of shift. And somebody will be by shortly to collect the tapes."

Somebody picked up the tapes of that afternoon's activities, and when I got off duty, I went over to the squadron. The First Sergeant waved me on into the Commanders office. He was sitting there, with a piece of paper in each hand. One was the Braniff pilot's report on my 'poor performance', the other was a 'Mission Saved' letter from the Navy. He looked up at me as I entered.

"Only you, Curry, could pull off something like this on one mission. Now get outta here."

I turned to leave.

"Oh, and Curry, that 'Welcome to Vietnam' was a bit over the top."

A night with WinWeb Security

2008-12-10T19:46:00.000-06:00

My travails of cleaning up a trojan ...

http://kzimm.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/a-night-with-winweb-security/

Linux - Stop holding our kids back

2008-12-09T11:51:00.002-06:00

I hope most of you are familiar with "helios", and all he's done for Linux.

This post, dated yesterday, is almost scary: Blog of helios.

To think that a teacher, who is responsible for helping children learn and grow, can be so out-of-touch with reality. It saddens me.

Like one of the follow-on posts says, "I have rarely seen a worse, more damaging ignoramus...."

Bits and pieces....

2008-12-08T13:04:00.003-06:00

Just thought I'd do a quick update here. I seem to spend more blogging time at my other blog, lately.

Mandriva is letting Adam Williamson go at the end of the year. That got me to post Mandriva ... :sigh:.

A report on a virus attack on military bases in Afghanistan prompted this.

And, finally, a bit about the Status of PCLinuxOS 2008/2009.

I guess, other than those bits, I've had nothing to say, lately.

Lovely weather we're having....

2008-11-13T10:43:00.003-06:00

Halloween weekend we had record highs. Simply beautiful weather. Twenty degrees above average for this time of year. Halloween night I built a fire in our fire pit out front, and sat near it in a lawn chair while serving the kids that came by. No jacket necessary, even after dark. One week later (last weekend) we were twenty degrees below average. This week we have had rain, sun, wind, cold, mild. Today we should be about average for temperature(mid-fifties). Tomorrow we lose ten degrees, and probably get wet flurries of snow....

This weekend the grandsons are having a Scout campout. I'm glad they have zero-degree sleeping bags. And new coats, hats, and gloves.

Obama Wins!

2008-11-06T09:06:00.002-06:00

And it's a sad day for America.

Still, I am very cautiously optimistic. As MaAb said after he killed his rival to become leader of his tribe, "Perhaps, to be high Ti-Er is to see things differently." (ST-TOS, "Friday's Child")

Game Companies are Becoming ‘Bazaar’

2008-10-02T11:54:00.001-05:00

At the Civilization Fanatics Center, there is discussion going on about the latest Civ game issued: Civilization4: Colonization. There is much ranting and raving occurring, based on the perception of some customers that the game is ‘broken’.

I wrote most of this in response to some who argued that they didn't want to “pay to be a beta tester”.

More at Ramblings of a Professional Computer Geek.

"My God — It's Full Of Stars!"

2008-09-30T14:28:00.005-05:00

Last weekend I helped drive a troop of Girl Scouts to a campout over in Iowa. The girls ranged in age from about six to fifteen. We got to the campsite after dark, about 9:00 PM.

While the leaders met with the camp director, to find out where we would be, I stayed back by the cars, to help keep an eye on the girls. One of the older girls got out of her car to stretch her legs. As she stretched, she looked up above the trees.

"Oh. My. God! Look at all the stars!"

She had grown up in the city, and had never seen the night sky in all its glory.

Polar Bears and Penguins: Just what is up with PCLinuxOS anyway?

2008-09-22T08:56:00.001-05:00

Big Bear, another Omaha resident, has hit one out of the park.

Polar Bears and Penguins: Just what is up with PCLinuxOS anyway?

New Microsoft Ads ...

2008-09-19T12:49:00.003-05:00

It's probably already been said, but I have to say it:

In a "Life Without Walls", who needs Windows?

Free? Or Freedom?

2008-09-18T14:04:00.001-05:00

Linux (or Gnu/Linux, as RMS would have me say) is Free Software. That is to say, the Gnu tools, the Linux Kernel, and most of the rest of the software, is licensed under the GPL (the Gnu General Public License, sometimes called a copyleft), which is considered a “Free” license. (Technically, a given copy of the Linux kernel may not be entirely Free, as it may contain some proprietary binary “blobs” to aid in wireless network connectivity and certain video card drivers.) Indeed, several totally “Free” distros exist,and several popular distros also provide Free versions.

But what is Free Software?
Read More...

Idiot Drivers

2008-09-16T11:27:00.003-05:00

I just had to get this off my chest.

What IS it with the IDIOTS on the freeway? Every day, it's the same thing. Driving too fast for conditions. Taking stupid risks. Why? Because they might get to work/home a minute or two faster.

This morning, I was on the on-ramp, just preparing to merge into the traffic. I was doing all of 20 mph, but that was because the rest of the traffic was doing the same - normal backed-up conditions leading into the construction zone. I was ready to pull into the flow when the guy who would have been behind me gunned his car into the spot, apparently just so I couldn't be ahead of him. Fortunately, the guy behind HIM was considerate....

On the way home, the first 10 miles is usually a pretty easy cruise. But when we hit the I-80/Kennedy Freeway interchange, all bets are off. The two inside lanes go straight through as I-80, with one more lane going either I-80 or continuing around to I-480. Another lane is pure I-480, while the far outside lane can be either I-480 or off to the Kennedy. Most of us wanting the Kennedy get in the far outside lane about a mile ahead, around the 42d Street interchange. OF course, Kennedy is where the construction is, so traffic slows, and backs up onto I-80. I can live with that; it's just a fact of life. Sometimes you can just roll through the interchange at 35 - 45 mph, which isn't too bad.

But, usually, there's a large truck needing to head down the Kennedy, somewhere up ahead. And, face it, an 18-wheeler has a lot of inertia. It takes time for it to both speed up and slow down. And the ramp to the Kennedy is uphill, which means they can't accelerate very fast on it. So, of course, there's the idiots behind me who can't wait the extra 30 seconds it will take to get to the ramp, and they pop over one lane, zoom down to the ramp, and then dive into the traffic flow again, cutting off the vehicles that are already crawling along. This, naturally, forces the backed up traffic to slow down even more, or even stop, which apparently upsets another idiot from behind, who pulls the same stunt. You wish you could make them understand that the reason we're going so slow is because of stunts like that. That if they would just hold their places, we would all be moving faster.

Of course, going home last night, I was cruising down I-80, when a pickup came zooming up from behind, cut in front of me, accelerated past the truck inthe next lane, ducked back over, and dashed on down the road. My first thought was that maybe I had been daydreaming, and unthinkingly had eased up on the accelerator. But a glance at my speedometer showed this was not the case. If anything, just the opposite. The speed limit there is 60, I was doing nearly 70, and this IDIOT came screaming by me, like to blow my doors off. I saw him as he went by, and he didn't seem to be in a particular hurry, his speed notwithstanding. He was just casually driving, at 20+ mph over the limit.

I have come tot he conclusion that much of this behavior is pure selfishness. "I am more important than you. My need to get to work/home outweighs yours." I can only shake my head, and somtimes smile when I see something like I did a few months ago. I was on the entrance ramp to the freeway, doing the speed limit. The guy behind me obviously thought it was too slow, and the instant there was pavement beside us, he popped out and around, hitting the accelerator all the way, right into the arms of the police, who had a speed trap set up just around the bend. :-D

Is PCLinuxOS Stale?

2008-09-15T10:33:00.001-05:00

Recently, I’ve been reading posts talking about how PCLinuxOS is “stale”, “going downhill”, or even “dying”.

Read more....

Camping Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

2008-09-09T12:36:00.003-05:00

I went camping this weekend with the Boy Scouts. It was a special "Family Camp" weekend, so parents could see what their children do an a camp out. We already know what they do when camping, but we enjoy camping, and it was an excuse to take the rest of the grandkids along.

Friday night was chilly, but that was not unexpected. Getting the two-year-old to sleep was another matter. I finally went into the tent and lay down with her, so she wouldn't feel alone. I evidently dozed off, because a while later my wife brought her back to the tent. The little sneak had figured out how to work the tent zipper, and slipped out the door into the dark. Fortunately, one of the boys saw her and reported her escape to my wife.

Finally, at "Lights Out", when everyone went to bed, she started crying. Loudly. To quiet her, my wife brought her to our bed and put her between us. After fussing for a while, and doing her best to make us to uncomfortable to sleep, she finally drifted off. I carefully re-deposited her in her own bed, and crawled into mine. About a half-hour later, I was jolted awake by her screaming. She was having a nightmare. Back between us she went, with my wife cuddling and quieting her. After she was once more soundly asleep, my wife disengaged her arm, and rolled over to sleep, herself. Immediately, the baby started screaming again. Back to cuddling. Between the nightmares and the little one's "anti-social" behavior (pushing, kicking, etc.), my wife figures we got, maybe, two hours of sleep.

Morning dawned cool and gray. After a nice breakfast of biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, and fruit, I needed to head back to the house to let the dogs out. I took the little one along, just to keep her out of my wife's hair. Thirty minutes later we were back, and as we walked from the parking lot to the camp site, another adult asked if I could give him a hand with a car problem. I said sure, and took Haley down to the camp site. I pointed her towards my wife, said, "Go play with Grandma", and went back up to the parking lot.

As soon as I was out of sight, Haley spun around and headed after me. My wife immediately gave chase, and caught her before she reached the parking lot, but not before my wife missed a step and fell down on her left shoulder, hard.

The rest of the day went pretty well. We had to keep Haley and her five-year-old cousin from running off in to the forest. Then they found the latrines, and were fascinated by the smells, and the noises things made when they "fell" in. (We rescued toys before they got that far.) And, of course, Haley found the soap at the washstand by the latrine, and was pleased to find that if she played with it, she would get to play in the water, too. (She adores "washing her hands".)

There were the usual mishaps. One Scout fell and got a shallow gash on his hand from a nail, or something. Another bunch accidentally ran into some "disgruntled" hornets, and got back with only three stings among them.

After dinner (ravioli, salad, and garlic bread, topped off with peach cobbler -- you really can eat well when camping, but that's for another post), I took Haley with me to go back home and let the dogs back in. By then it was dark, and as we got back to camp, it started raining.

Now my wife and I started talking about heading home for the night. Neither of us had gotten much sleep the night before, and both Haley and her cousin were getting crabby, and were threatening to to make it an even worse night than last. We finally agreed that we would take the little ones home for the night, so they (and we) could sleep, and bring everybody back for breakfast in the morning. But first, I needed to grab the little cooler from our tent, that had the baby's milk and bedtime bottle in it.

I grabbed a flashlight and headed to our tent, pausing a moment when I got there to grouch about my oldest granddaughter not zipping up the tent when she had been in it earlier. She had left the door unzipped at the bottom, so the rain that was pouring down was running down the door and into a nice puddle, right inside the tent.

I grabbed the few items I had come for, and then went to leave the tent. But as I stepped over the bottom edge of the door, my foot caught. My other foot was in the rain puddle, and starting to slip. I grabbed at the side of the tent, but it was slick with rain. In a fraction of a second that seemed like an eternity (I distinctly remember trying three times to get my foot over the door edge), I fell out into the rain, with the cooler landing under my right chest, and me striking it with the full force of my body being pulled down by gravity.

I remember rolling off the cooler, because it was too painful to be laying across it. I remember lying on my back in the rain, trying to convince my diaphragm that I really really, did need to breathe. After I had lain there without moving for a [probably short time, but felt like forever], one of the other adults came over to see if I was okay. My wife stayed under the dining shelter, because she didn't want to communicate her worry to the little ones. (She said that when I fell, Haley called out, "G'ampa! You OK?") By then, I had taken quick stock of myself. My heart was still beating. I was still breathing, albeit raggedly. I didn't feel any broken bones grating in my chest as I breathed. So I told him I thought I just had the breathe knocked out of me, rolled to my side, and got myself to my feet.

We picked up the stuff I had dropped, took the kids home, and crawled into bed. Sunday morning we went back to the campsite and packed up our gear, and assisted with the general teardown of the camp. I was moving very slow.

When we got home, I called the base clinic emergency number. The Urgent Care Clinic was closed, being Sunday, but if I was in unbearable pain he could route me to a civilian ER for treatment. Otherwise he could make me an appointment for Monday. I took the first appointment he had. (I've had kidney stones - considered to be more painful than childbirth. While I hurt, this was not unbearable.)

Monday morning, the doctor checked me out, and said that the fact that I wasn't coughing up blood was a good sign, and that indications were that I had cracked a rib. At the very least, I had stretched and strained all the connective tissues that held the ribs in place. The only way to verify a crack would be an X-ray, but that wouldn't change the treatment any, and only subject me to unneeded radiation. So now I'm on 800mg ibuprofen 3 times a day, with a tablet of Vicodin (narcotic) at bedtime if pain keeps me awake.

My wife and I don't think we're taking toddlers camping again any time soon....

At Least I'm a COOL Nerd God

2008-08-29T12:16:00.002-05:00

And, lets not forget true computer geekness:

Update on the Drowning Tragedy

2008-08-26T10:34:00.002-05:00

The owner of the pool has been cited for not properly securing the pool. Other pool owners in the neighborhood have also been ticketed. The city is cracking down on this (finally).

Bellevue police have also charged the grandmother with misdemeanor child neglect. Their public statement was that it was a difficult decision to make, but the law was very clear. It is now in the hands of the District Attorney, who may or may not take it further.

PCLinuxOS Saves the Day ... Again

2008-08-25T10:59:00.002-05:00

Thursday, my daughter’s Dell Inspiron laptop was working fine. She finished as usual, just closing the lid, which puts the laptop in suspend/hibernate mode.

Friday evening, she opened the lid, and got … nothing. It was plugged into power, the indicator light was on, but the screen remained totally blank. She tried moving the mouse, clicking buttons, pressing keys. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Finally, in desperation, she hit the power button.

When she booted it back up, she got the comforting splash screen, then it cleared, and … nothing. Just a little blinking cursor in the upper left corner.

Saturday, she called me and said, “I need help.”

Ramblings of a Professional Computer Geek

Neighborhood Tragedy

2008-08-19T11:42:00.001-05:00

I'm just trying to get my thoughts and reactions down, before they're gone....

Saturday lunchtime. The neighbor girls are playing out front with my grandkids, and some other neighborhood kids. The oldest girl is 14, but has Down's Syndrome, I'm guessing mental capacity of about a three or four year old. The younger girl, her niece, is 2 and a half. Three weeks younger than my own granddaughter.

At 1:30, we need to take my oldest grandson to a birthday party / sleepover at a friend's house. (15-yr-olds and XBox360s. Go figure.) I send the neighbor girls home. No, you can't go into my house. No, you aren't going in my car. I point them in the right direction, and give them a gentle push. We get my grandkids loaded into the car, and, as we leave the house, I see the older girl sitting on her front step, and the baby opening their front screen door.

We drop the oldest grandson off at his friend's place, and chat for a few minutes with the parents. Then we take the rest of the kids to Dairy Twist for an ice cream cone. About 2:30, as we are driving home, just a few blocks away, my wife points out the window. "Isn't that Monica? What's she doing up here, by herself?" The older neighbor girl is walking up the hill, away from her house. Since we aren't sure if she knows us well enough to get in the car with us, we drive the last few block to home, and see a police car in the neighbor's driveway.

We asked if they were looking for Monica. They said yes, so we told them where we had just seen her. Her brother took off right away, and the policeman foll wed a minute later. Then her sister asked if Katie, the two-year-old, her daughter, had been with her. She was missing, too.

My wife immediately headed across the street and through the playground, and up the hill, which was the most direct route to where we had seen Monica. If Katie had been with her, she might have been lagging behind, up the hill. Other neighbors came over, and started searching in other places. One said she had seen them in the park behind our houses, watching the planes from the Air Force Week Air Show going on just then. A couple of neighbors headed to check out the obvious routes back from the park, since they hadn't just used the gate to their own back yard.

Time passed. My wife and the brother were asking people out watching the Air Show if they had seen Katie. Nobody had. The police were trying to get whatever information they could from Monica. All she said was that Katie was at the pool. There is no public pool in the neighborhood. It had to be a private, backyard pool. People immediately started checking every yard for a pool.

About 3:15 a motorcycle cop went screaming down our street, siren blaring. A moment later, a police car followed. A few minutes later, we heard an ambulance siren in the distance. Then a neighbor's 16-yr-old daughter came running up the street as fast as she could. They had found Katie, face down in a pool, about 3 block away. Nobody was home. They were trying to resuscitate her now. They family jumped in a car and headed that way. A little later, we heard the ambulance leaving for the hospital.

Around 5:00 the grandfather, our neighbor, got home from the hospital, in tears. They hadn't been able to save her. She was gone.

My Job

2008-08-18T13:15:00.002-05:00

I promised to write about this a while ago.

Back in September 2007, I got laid off from my job as a defense contractor. I had been with the company for eleven years, so I was "expensive". When the prime contractor on the job I was working screwed up their financials, they decided to cut costs by getting rid of developers, instead of management. And since I wasn't even a real "developer", but instead a Software Configuration Manager, plus being "expensive", and belonging to their biggest competitor, I was an "obvious" choice.

My company was able to find me a temporary position until the end of September, but at the end of the fiscal year, they couldn't justify the overhead of keeping me on any current contracts. So they gave me my severance pay, a pat on the back, and a reminder that my security clearance would still be good for two more years.

I expected to be out of work for only a couple weeks, at most. Given my knowledge of DoD computing systems, and the skillset I had developed over the last 25+ years, I figured I was pretty much a shoe-in. I made the rounds of smaller defense contractors working on the base. They all said I had an impressive resume, and should be able to just walk in to nearly any job they had. But, no jobs are available, right now. Check back after the holidays, when hiring picks up. Everywhere I went it was the same story. You'd be a great fit, but we can't use you right now.

I ended up going on Unemployment, and basically sitting around the house over the winter. I'd make a couple of job searches/applications every week, just to continue to qualify for my weekly unemployment checks, but nobody was hiring. Finally, in February, with resumes posted on a couple of world-wide sites, I began to get a few hits. Harris was interested in having me come down to Florida's Space Coast to work with NASA. Sounded promising, but I was still hoping for something in the Omaha area. (I've been here since 1984. I've put down roots! It would have been a severe hardship, for my wife, especially, to move so far away.) I asked them to keep my name in the hopper for a few weeks, while I waited to see what else came up. (To their credit, they did just that.)

Raytheon called me about working as a Software Configuration Manager on a new project down in Dallas/Fort Worth. They offered me a 35% pay raise in conjunction with it. Looking very promising. But, again, it's a long way from Omaha. I put them on hold, too. Meanwhile, the local Raytheon office contacted me about doing SCM for a project on base. I asked only one question: "Is this on the ISPAN contract?" That's what I had been doing when I got laid off, and I was pretty burned out on it. They said no, it's over at AFWA. Sounding pretty good. They said they would set up an interview. Great.

Meanwhile, another local company, with no affiliation with defense contracting, found my resume, and gave me a ring. West Corporation was looking for qualified senior software engineers, to help form a core, non-client-based group to build standard system libraries, manage system-wide applications, and generally serve as an internal standards organization. Okay, that sounded kind of interesting. We set up a telephone interview for the next day.

The initial telephone interview done, I talked to my local "headhunter", who was interfacing with Raytheon for me. He pinged them about my interview with them. "As soon as we can set it up." Okay, just let me know. Then I got another call from West. I had made the initial cut, and they wanted to do a face-to-face interview. I was quite agreeable to this.

At this interview I learned that the primary language used is CLASS, a proprietary, interpreted language written in C, and maintained entirely on-site. Some applications are written using Java, with a specialized Eclipse front-end. The Java, in turn, produces VXML files that control the actual application. The most interesting thing, to me, was finding out that the applications are run almost exclusively on UNIX/Linux servers. Hundreds of them! And the starting pay would be a little more than I had been making on base. This sounded right up my alley.

The next day I got a call officially offering me the job. I thought about it for nearly a day, then called my headhunter and told him to tell Raytheon they blew it. They had had two weeks to ask me in for an interview, and hadn't seemed able to get their act together. I was accepting the offer from West. He said he couldn't blame me, and we parted friends.

Now I sit at my workstation all day having fun. I have written an Informix database / Stored Procedure backend that clients can call to get billing data for overseas telephone calls. I have written a CLASS program for an internal client (West Notifications Group) to let their clients generate their own voice messages for telephone systems. (Actually, that one ended up being a kluge of several languages/systems, to meet their specialized needs. CLASS for the main app, which calls a TCL script to validate callers against their database, using SOAP web service calls. Their voice messages are then moved to another server, where a Perl script is run every five minutes to check for new voice files, convert them to .wav format, and ftp them to the WNG server. Finally, the Perl script calls a Java routine to notify the SOAP web service that new files have been added. Phew!)

I've also updated some library routines to provide requested, added functionality, and to start making them standards-compliant. As part of my team, I have helped define the CLASS Coding Standards. Probably my biggest accomplishment to date is taking the existing online Application Developers Manual, and convert it from a mishmash of html 2, 3, and 4 code, only accessible from IE, into an xhtml-strict compliant system, using a common "look and feel" on all pages, and can be used from any web browser, even Lynx! My next plan for it is to make it PHP/java/DHTML, and handling it as true XHTML1.1, delivered as application/xhtml+xml. Except that IE can't handle that, so I have to write a bunch of IE-specific code to handle things. (Stupid Microsoft.) (Our "corporate desktop" is Windows XP, running IE, and MS Office. I spend all my time in xterm windows sshed into various Linux servers, to do my job....)

My only complaint about the job is the 20-mile commute on the freeway, each way.

“I’m thinking about Linux, but …”

2008-08-09T22:47:00.001-05:00

Case in point:

Here is my recent treatise on Linux, and what a new user can expect.

Just F.Y.I.

2008-08-08T16:52:00.001-05:00

I have begun putting my "serious" Linux-related writings on my other blog, at Ramblings of a Professional Computer Geek.

I don't intend to ignore this blog. It will remain for non-Linux things.

Tornado at Little Sioux

2008-07-31T14:46:00.004-05:00

June 11, 2008
Hundreds of Boy Scouts from several states were at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch, situated on the bluffs of the Missouri River, attending a week-long leadership course. There was a tornado watch in effect, but this is part of Tornado Alley, during tornado season; you're always under a tornado watch. You just keep your eyes and ears open, and go about your business.

Late in the afternoon, a string of supercell thunderstorms fired up in Nebraska, and headed east.

As the Scouts finished dinner, they broke up into a few groups. About half went to the North Shelter, to watch a film. A few boys went for a hike in the woods. Most of the rest just hung around the camp, doing chores and taking it easy.

As the thunderstorms approached the Missouri River, they grew in size and strength, and started dropping twisters out of their wall clouds. Warning sirens began to sound in nearby communities.

About 6:30, the boys in the shelter were getting ready for the film. The camp warning siren started to sound, meaning a tornado was somewhere nearby. One of the boys happened to look out and saw the tornado as it came around the bluff. He shouted a warning, and everyone hit the floor, under the heavy tables. Things might have been more-or-less okay, but as the tornado went by, it picked up the camp ranger's pickup truck and threw it against the fireplace chimney, knocking it down. several boys were hit by the bricks and stones as the chimney collapsed onto them. Four died as a result, while others had serious injuries. Two members of my grandsons' troop were inthis shelter, but by good fortune were on the opposite side of the room and emerged without serious injury.

The group that was hanging around the camp heard the sirens, and high-tailed it to the South Shelter, their designated spot. One of our troop's boys, who was there on Staff, was herding his patrol to the shelter, running at the rear of the group, said all of a sudden he felt like he hit a brick wall, and found himself sitting on the ground beside another staff member. They couldn't figure out what they had hit, until they realized the funnel had dropped down right in front of them. And now they were sitting directly underneath, looking right up into the center of it. They knew that if they stayed where they were, they would be sucked up and killed, so they decided to try to break through the wall of wind. The first boy jumped through okay, but when Ian jumped, he only got partway. His arms and head were outside, and he was holding on to the ground for his life, as his feet were still inside, and were now pointing straight up the funnel. His friend grabbed his arms, and was able to yank him the rest of the way out. When they made it to the shelter, it was virtually collapsed, but the boys inside were relatively unhurt.

The group that was out hiking had sheltered in a ditch, and also came out relatively unscathed, as the tornado didn't come as close to them.

With the tornado past, the Scouts assessed the situation, and took action. First concern was rescuing their fellow members who were buried in the rubble in the North Shelter. Others grabbed chainsaws and began clearing fallen trees from the roads leading from the camp, as any rescue vehicles would need to get through. Yet another group headed for the Ranger's cabin, as it had been reduced to a pile of wood and masonry. Inside was the Ranger, his wife, and their young children.

The Ranger had taken his family to the safest part of the house, but when the tornado made a direct hit, no place was safe. He and his wife sheltered their children with their own bodies. But when the cabin collapsed on them, they couldn't move. Their two-year-old son had gotten a baby formula can jammed onto his face, and was just minutes away from suffocation. Then the Scouts arrived and began to clear and search the wreckage. They family escaped with just cuts and bruises.

When the rescue crews from nearby towns got to the camp, they didn't find a bunch of boys, scared witless by what they had been through. They found a group of young men, calmly doing what they had been trained to do in an emergency.

Wow!

2008-07-31T11:19:00.002-05:00

Oh, man. I had nearly forgotten about this blog. Here it is a year and a half since my last entry. For shame.

In that time, much has happened. I got laid off. Had to commit bankruptcy. Got a new job better than the old.

I'll try to commit some of my thoughts back here, again, in the very near future.

PCLinuxOS

2007-02-06T21:32:00.000-06:00

Well, I decided to give PCLinuxOS 2007 Test Release 1 a shot. (I've been running PCLOS 0.93a, the current (previous) release.) Texstar decided to give us a Test Release (often knows as "Release Candidate 1") since the changes between 0.93 and 0.94/2007 were so great.

I had intended to stick with 0.93a until 2007-Final was released, but everything I was reading looked so good. I knew there were some bugs, but I decided to take the plunge, anyway. And I'm glad I did! The live-CD booted up fine, and everything I played with seemed to work okay, so I hit the "Install" button.Now even my poor old system is running Beryl, with 3D effects as good as, or better than, anything found in MS-Vista. I've got cutting-edge versions of my favorite software, and everything "just works". The PCLOS Beautification Project has worked wonders, unifying icons, splashes, and the like with a clean "PCLinuxOS" theme.

I love this system, and the final release can only get better!

It's Official!

2007-01-27T09:36:00.000-06:00

I am now a 1Lt, USAF (Retired).

I went down to the Base Personnel Office (or whatever the USAF calls it these days) yesterday, and got my new ID card, and went to the vehicle registration office and got a new officer's decal for my car.

Even though it actually took effect last fall, I hadn't bothered to get in to take care of the paperwork. After all, who cares what my ID says as long as I am paid correctly. ;-)

Windows Vista: Wow

2007-01-26T21:44:00.000-06:00

Wow - It costs HOW MUCH???

Wow - Look at those hardware requirements!

Wow - It won't let me make a remix CD of my own CDs!

Wow - It won't let me convert my DVDs to play on my iPod!

Wow - What a piece of crap!

(You didn't expect me to LIKE Vista, did you?)

Bye-bye, Mandriva ...

2007-01-13T21:43:00.000-06:00

Okay. One of the reasons I didn't post for a while there was that I was busy looking for a new Linux distro to use. Those who know me know I've been sold on Mandrake/Mandriva since it first forked from RedHat. Mandrake 7.2 was the version that convinced me that Linux was a serious operating system. I've still got my original boxed set for Mandrake 8.1. I installed 9.0, 9.1, 9.2. All wonderful. Mandrake 10.0 is the distro that convinced me that I didn't need MS anymore. Madnrake 10.1 and 10.2 didn't disappoint. Mandriva 2005LE, the first version after the merger with Conectiva, was excellent. (Yeah, it was 10.2 repackaged, but still.) I installed Mandriva 2006, and was deleriously happy. Then, in the fall of 2006, I installed their latest effort: Mandriva 2007 Powerpack.

It had a lot of pretty eye-candy. Lots of nice bells and whistles. The "starry-eyed penguin" of 2006 was thankfully gone, and a nice, professional-looking background was the default. But after the initial euphoria wore off, I noticed niggling little problems. Even after I installed the devel sources, I had trouble compiling things. KVirc, for instance, took a lot of tweaking to get right, that I hadn't had to do in 2006. lm_sensors didn't want to install correctly, and sensors-detect didn't seem to work right. A variety of small, niggling problems that made me less than happy. So I started on a quest.

I had always kept a spare partition available for testing other distros. Now it got a workout. I tried Suse. I tried Fedora. I tried Mepsi, the Ubuntu family, Debian. I even dabbled with Gentoo, and Slackware. But none of them gave me that nice, comfortable feeling I had always gotten from Mandrake.

About ready to give up, I remembered a young man, nicknamed Texstar, who had been one of my favorite Mandrake "extras" developers. His rpms were considered to be second to none, and were always as good as, if not better than, the official repositories. He had forked his own distro from Mandrake 9. PCLinuxOS. An unimaginative name, to be sure. Still, this was Texstar's work. It HAD to be pretty good, right? So I downloaded the latest release: 0.93a, an installable live-CD. I burned it, and booted it up. When it came up, my first thought was, "I'm home."

My primary boot partition now holds PCLinuxOS, and I don't see myself ever leaving. Not as long as Tex and his "Ripper Gang" remain responsive to his customers. And he has promised to keep providing the best distro he knows how to make, so I should be happy for a long time to come.

AArrgghh!

2007-01-13T20:48:00.000-06:00

Well, I *thought* I was going to do better. I tried. Really I did. But when I went to save my latest post, it accidentally wiped it out!

That'll teach me to write things in KWrite first, so I can save my own copy, and then justy paste them here.

Okay ... Maybe Not ...

2007-01-07T13:15:00.000-06:00

I guess I wasn't really *back* as I indicated in my last post.

I need to try harder to actually post things here, instead of just thinking about it, and then forgetting when I get the chance to sit at the computer.

I'll try to do better, honest!

And I'm Back!

2006-08-24T20:04:00.000-05:00

Wow! Four months without a post! That says something. (And not a good something.)

I guess all I can say is, it's been a busy summer. Many evenings, the last thing I want to do is look at my blog.

We've done a lot of camping. And I mean TENT-camping. None of this namby-pamby, air-conditioned, just-like-home, RV stuff. Get out there with nature, with just a sheet of nylon between you and the elements. Cook over an open fire. Bathe in the cold mountain streams! Er ... actually, I use the showers at the campsite. But otherwise, yeah! We have made one concession to age, though: we have a double-high air mattress - 19" off the ground. Our knees just don't like climbing up from ground-level every morning.

We went to a family reuinion in July. (We camped, of course.) Four of us five brothers were there. We had a good time, visiting with relatives we rarely see, anymore. The actual reunion was for the family on my mother's side, but we had breafast that morning with Aunt Dorothy, on my father's side. We kidded her that she needed to put in a parking lot, because there were as many relatives there as there were at my mom's reunion later that day!

Cub Scouts, with my grandson, has chewed up alot of time. (Much of it camping! :-D) I also played some Civ3, particularly the RIse of Rome Conquest, and I played out a game my oldest grandson started before he went to visit his dad for the summer. I'll talk about those inlater posts.

That's all for now. Catch you on the flip-side....

Civ!

2006-04-09T21:06:00.000-05:00

My, my! How fun flies when you're doing time. (Or something like that.) It's been a while since my last post. One reason is, I've been hooked by Civ3, again. I decided to play some of the Conquests scenarios.

First up was the Ancient Age of Wonders. I choose to be a random Civ, and I got ... Mycene. Way over on the left side of the map, in what we now call Greece, with everybody else over in Trukey and the Middle East. Makes it kind of hard to meet, and trade. But on the other hand, it left me with a lot of room for early expansion. I quickly found the Straits of Bosperus, and planted a sentinal there, to prevent anybody from paying me a visit before I was ready, and I started pushing out Settlers to claim as much land as feasible. Meanwhile, I sent exploring parties out through Aisa Minor, down through Lebanon, and thence towards Egypt.

As I started filling the Balkan peninsula with my towns, I was also building my military, and even began a few Wonders. Of course, everyone else was less than happy with me, because I wouldn't let them across the Straits into Europe, while my troops kept blundering into their territory. Of course, I alsop kep researching new technologies, and trading with everybody, so I kept getting all their gold, which only let me research faster, which meant they paid me more gold for what I knew/discovered. It was a vicious circle. Finally, they had had enough, and banded together to bring me down, and put me in my place. SIlly fools.

Did they really think I had been sitting on my duff, enjoying Bacchanalias, while my soldiers wasted away? Nay. I had been upgrading my troops, giving them new weapons, and teaching them new tactics. And when the time came, I led them into battle, myself. In short order, I owned half of Asia Minor, and was marching through Syria, when my opponents sued for peace. Being a benevolent ruler, I granted their wish.

Two turns later, I completed the final Wonder of the Ancient WOrld, and the game ended. I had built five WOnders, Persia had built one, and Egypt had built one. Needless to say, I had won a mhuge victory.

Next up: the Rise of Rome!

Snow!

2006-03-19T09:45:00.000-06:00

Well, we're finally getting some snow this winter!

Our normal annual snowfall is about three feet (one meter). So far this year, we have had less than a foot (30 cm). But this week should bring us much closer to average.

The forecasters started saying a week ago that there was a major storm system moving in from the Pacific. They said it would almost certainly bring us some precipitation. As the week went on, one local forecaster said that one of the models indicated we would get almost 2 ft of snow. He also said that model is notorious for overestimating precipitation. Still, it looked likely that we would get some snow.

Well, the first "wave" got here about 7:00 this morning. They say we can expect up to five inches from it. Then this evening, the "big one" gets here, with up to a foot additional. And it should keep snowing on and off for the next four days.

This could be fun!

Bureaucracy

2006-02-23T23:24:00.000-06:00

What a day!

I spent the day down in Lincoln, getting my son his driver's license back.

It all started last summer, when he was working as a delivery man. He was caught speeding. In a Construction Zone, so the fine doubles. He was given the option of paying the $400 fine, or attending a special driver safety class. Being cheap, he opted for the class.

Unfortunately, In September, he got a letter from the City, telling him he had to pay the fine, or his license would be suspended. No problem, he thought. He called the office that sent the letter, and explained that he had taken the class, giving the date. The person he talked to said he would take care of it.

In December, he was driving home from the bowling center in his girlfriend's car. This car had been in an accident, and the front bumper had been replaced with a bumper that had no place to attach a license plate. So she had been driving around for over a year with the front plate on the dash, ion the front window. But that night, a cop decided it really should be on the bumper.

My son was his usual polite self talking to the officer. He said they would buy a plate-holder in the morning and affix the plate properly. Then the cop dropped the bombshell. "Did you know your license was suspended?" The cop kept the license (of course), my son was in shock, and his girlfriend had to drive the rest of the way home. They bought a plate-holder the next morning, and fixed the plate, thus avoiding any fine for that. Then my son tried calling the city, but it was the holiday season, and of course, the person he needed to talk to was out until January. He finally was able to talk to that individual, who explained that his name wasn't on file as having taken the class, so he had to pay the fine before he could get his license back. Of course, the next day was his court date on the charge of driving on a suspended license.

He explained his situation to the judge, and asked for a little more time to get it all straightened out. The judge took pity on him, and gave him a full 60 days to take care of things. So two weeks later, my son paid the fine. They told him there that to get his license back, he would have to go to the state department of motor vehicles, and pay an additional $50 there to get his license back.

So today, two weeks later, I was able to get away from the office for a day, and I took him down to Lincoln. We found the state DMV office, and and went in. Fortunately, they have this step down to a science. The clerk took the paperwork from my son, ran it against his computer records, took our money, and a little while later came back with my son's drivers license.

He hadn't been behind the wheel of a car in nearly two months, and he was so thrilled to be able to drive again that he asked if he could drive home. So I got to kick back and watch the scenery for an hour this afternoon instead of fighting traffic myself.

Pinewood Derby!

2006-02-19T20:40:00.000-06:00

Anyone who has ever been a Cub Scout knows the Pinewood Derby. Kids take a block of wood roughly two inches square, by eight inches long, and carve it into a race car. They race them on a special track. Each Cub Scout Pack has its own Derby, and the winners go onto higher levels. Today, my grandson won his "division" (Bear Cubs) in his Pack's race, so he gets to go on to the District Finals in April. If you ever want to see a thrilled nine-year-old, watch him win a Pinewood Derby.

"UnAmerican Activities"

2006-02-16T20:58:00.000-06:00

A tongue-in-cheek title for what may become a recurring series: the things that some people do that just strike me as wrong.

I work on an Air Force Base. One thing that occurs every day at 4:30PM is Retreat; the lowering of the US flag. During this time, they first play the trumpet call, then they play the national anthem. As a sign of respect, service members outside at the time stop what they are doing, come to attention, and render a salute to the flag as it is lowered. Civilians come to attention and place a hand over their heart. Drivers in their cars stop, and sit at attention until the music is finished. Those who haven't worked in a military environment before may be unfamiliar with this, but it is briefed to all personnel when they come to work on the base. It is also reinforced periodically via articles in the base newspaper, and notices via our internal network.

Today, after work, I got to my car in the parking lot a little before 4:30, and started to leave. It was cold, and snowing, so of course I had my car windows all rolled up. But I knew what time it was. As I got to the exit to the parking lot, I thought I heard the trumpet call. I looked back over the lot, and sure enough, I saw people coming to a stop and rendering respect to the flag. So I stopped my car, cracked the window a little so I could hear, and sat. In the middle of the national anthem, two cars pulled up behind me, and then pulled around me and continued on down the street.

I know who at least one of them was, and I intend to give him a tongue-lashing tomorrow. Is it really that hard to pause for a moment and pay our respects to our country and its flag?

Civ4 On Linux!

2006-02-15T18:30:00.000-06:00

Transgaming just released a new version of Cedega (5.1) that is supposed to run Civilization IV!

"On February 15, 2006 TransGaming put forth the latest Cedega release, 5.1, codenamed "Marlin". Cedega 5.1 is jam packed with exciting new features, fixes and games. Support for three recently released blockbuster titles; Sid Meier's Civilization(R) IV, FIFA(R) 06 and Need for Speed(TM): Most Wanted have been added to the Cedega repertoire."

Why Linux? (Part 3 - Conclusion)

2006-02-13T20:53:00.000-06:00

Eventually, I upgraded to Windows Me. For some reason, I didn't have the troubles so many others were claiming. It ran fast, and clean for me. At least as stable as Win98. But it meant yet another minor tweak in the human interface "standard". Meanwhile, I installed Mandrake 6 as a dual-boot system. The GUI looked interesting, but compared to Windows, seemed unfinished. Still the command line was useful. Better than DOS.

About 2001, I rebuilt three machines (mine, my wife's and my daughter's). My then son-in-law provided a copy of Windows 2000 Pro, and Office 2000, which I installed on all three machines. This was a solid, stable release. It gave me less trouble than any other version of Windows I had used. But also at this time, I switched from dial-up to a broadband internet connection, and I began to be concerned about viruses and spyware. I was still sold on Windows, but the cost of regular system upgrades, and the headaches of securing the systems were beginning to take a toll on me.

I tried cygwin as a command window alternative, and was pleased with the more powerful shell, compared to DOS. I downloaded Mandrake 9.1 and installed it as dual-boot. Much better, but still not enough to make me switch. I started reading more about Microsoft's marketing tactics, and decided to look more seriously at alternatives. I still used Win2K, and Outlook for my mail, but I tried Opera as a web browser, and ended up purchasing a full license for it. I upgraded my Mandrake to version 9.2, and kept switching back to Windows to get anything important done.

I also had settled into a regular routine. Every six months, I would completely reformat and reinstall the Windows partitions on the systems in my house. It was the only way to keep them fully functional. Meanwhile, I started frequenting Linux sites, and read the infamous Halloween Memos out of Microsoft. When Windows XP was released, with its built in spyware (e.g., "phoning home" to tattle if you change your hardware), I resolved I would not spend my money to upgrade to it.

I downloaded Mandrake 10.0, and thought, "this might be it." KDE 3 seemed about as good as Windows. The application suite was there. I used it strictly for two weeks. It felt good. But ... Windows was still my comfort zone. If nothing else, I could only play Civilization III in Windows. Firaxis didn't make a Linux version. And every time I booted to Windows, I seemed to stay there longer.

Then, in April 2004, My Windows installation was starting to act up. It was due for another reformat and reinstall. SO I saved everything off, inserted my Win2K CD, and rebooted. The install chugged along, and I clicked all the usual buttons, and finally it told me to remove the CD and reboot. And I was left with a screen that said "NO SYSTEM". I was in shock. I re-did the installation, with the same result. I had now been without my computer for nearly two days. I thought "this is ridiculous!" I knew that Mandrake could install a complete system, including apps, in about half an hour. So I left my "Windows" partition alone, and did a reinstall of Mandrake 10.0. I decided if I ever figured out what the problem was, I could reinstall Windows at a later date. But right now, I just wanted to get online, to check my email, and help moderate the CFC forums.

After a month or so, using Opera-Linux and Konqueror to browse the web, Kontact/KMail to read my email, and OpenOffice to handle my office needs, I realized: I don't need Windows! KDE 3.2 was every bit as good as, even better than, the Windows desktop. I had access to all the things that the OS did, but in a *safe* fashion: "su". I had no virus worries. I had no spyware worries. Computing was fun again!

Since then, I have downloaded Cedega from Transgaming.com, which enables me to play Civ3 on my Linux box. I have upgraded my system to Mandrake 10.2, and then Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition (Mandrake 10.2), and now Mandriva 2006.0. I have deleted the Windows partition from my system, as I never expect to dual-boot again. I haven't found anything I can't do in Linux that I used to do in Windows. I am once again a happy camper with my computer.

Why Linux? (Part Two)

2006-02-11T22:22:00.000-06:00

Why was I concerned about IBM and Microsoft getting into the home computer business? At the time, I was, admittedly, more concerned about IBM. Up until then, those of us who bought home computers were, unapologetically, geeks. We enjoyed being on the cutting edge of new technology. Even though we talked about commoditizing them, there was an ego thing going on; we were the first implementers.

When the IBM PC was first introduced, it used stable, tried and true technology, not cutting edge stuff. And of course, there was the unspoken thought, "If it's not IBM, it's not a computer." That was particularly infuriating to those of us who had been using home computers for years, already, and doing things that were clearly unable to be done with the IBM PC. Many computers already had graphical interfaces, and virtually all of them had a better OS than PC-DOS (IBM's branded MS-DOS). But IBM had something the smaller companies didn't: a top-quality marketing team.

About this time, I had my first exposure to UNIX. DoD decided to implement UNIX workstations as the end-user terminal systems to our mainframe. Of course, nobody at our headquarters could even spell UNIX, so I volunteered to be "point". I explored the systems, learned how to use their built-in security features, and wrote a set of scripts to assist other administrators in installing and setting up their systems. These were adopted by the integrationcontractor, and distributed with the systems throughout the world. This was what I had been missing: solving a problem, and then sharing the results with anyone who wanted it, with no expectation of recompense.

I used UNIX for several years, at work, until I moved on to a different job in 1993. In my new job, we used PCs running Windows as terminals, and to connect to the net for inter-base communication. By this time I had come to accept the logic of having a standard system, even if it was imposed by a vendor. Still, it wasn't until the release of Windows 95 that I thought the PC had reached the level of sophistication we had enjoyed in the mid-80s.

During this time I still used my beloved Atari at home. It had a good word processor, and plenty of good games. I couldn't see forking over the money for a PC-clone. Then I got sent to Italy and Bosnia for two years, as a final "gift" from the Air Force. When I got back, my wife had bought a small 486-based system, because she needed some programs that weren't available for the Atari, and I wasn't home to write them for her.

So I joined the ranks of the "average" users. I had been writing programs to MS specs for several years, now, and could appreciate having a standard set of human interface specs. But I was starting to notice something. In Windows 3.1 the spec was such and such. Then in Windows 95, it was changed a bit. Then in Windows 98, it was changed again. I was starting to get a bit frustrated.

In 1998 I also stumbled across an early copy of Mandrake Linux. I remembered the fun I had with UNIX years before, so I installed it as a dual boot, to see what it was like. It was a struggle getting anything but a command-line interface, so I located a copy of Red Hat, and gave it a try. Even worse. No matter. It was an interesting experience, and I learned quite a bit.

Meanwhile, I had started with hardware upgrades, and was building my own computer. Like most people back then, I didn't bother tobuy a new copy of Windows for every machine. I already had a CD with Win 98 Upgrade, and I had Windows 3.1 on floppy to upgrade from. I had bought them, so who should care if I put them on more than one machine?

Why Linux? (Part One)

2006-02-11T14:43:00.000-06:00

I am often asked, "Why do you use Linux?" My usual, flippant answer is, "Why not?" But in this post, I will explore my own reasonings for making the switch to Linux.

Many ages ago, There was no such thing as a Home, or Personal, Computer. A computer meant a Mainframe, or, if you were able to function with a smaller system, a Mini. These computers filled whole rooms of the commercial buildings they were housed in, and were tended to by an elite priesthood that could speak the language of that computer, and make it do their bidding. Gradually, the secrets of the priesthood began to leak, and spread, as the power of these systems became more available to more businesses.

One of the first secrets to leak was the language used by the computers. Originally, this "machine language" was unique to each computer, but as more and more were built, it became obvious that it was more cost-effective for each manufacturer to use the same (or at least, similar) machine language for each system they built. Now, they no longer had to remember esoteric codes made of ones and zeros, but could create human-readable instructions that any of their computers could translate, and run. Thus, IBM had their Basic Assembly Language (BAL), Honeywell had the General Macro Assembler Program (GMAP), etc. Now, and IBM programmer, for instance, could write a BAL program, assemble it, and run it on any IBM mainframe.

But Assembly languages were just direct correlations between machine code and human readable instruction sets. A significant improvement, yes, but how do you express business rules in machine language? How can you write scientific algorithms when it can take pages of Assembly code to do one small part? "Higher level" languages were needed. But to be most useful, a program written for, say, IBM, should be able to be recompiled and run on a Honeywell, or a Burroughs, without needing major re-writing. So the major computer makers, and their customers, got together in different groups over time, and hammered out some language specifications they thought would serve their needs. And in a spirit of cooperation, they made these specifications "standards", so that the engineers knew that if they followed the standards, their program would run on any machine that also followed the standards, whatever the underlying machine code looked like.

The first computer language I learned, back in the mid 1970s, was one of these: FORTRAN IV. My programs were written to run on an IMB 360, but years later, I compiled and ran one of them on a Honeywell 68000, just for grins. It worked perfectly. Shortly after learning FORTRAN, I learned a new language making the rounds, The Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC). This was another standardized language, with every vendor holding to the standard implementation. Sure, many vendors provided "extensions" to the language, to make it run even better on their hardware, but a programmer always knew that if he stuck to the standard instruction set, his code would run on any computer that supported the language.

Eventually, I graduated from College and received a commission in the USAF. About the same time, a new idea was starting to spread around the country: Home Computers. Largely the result of the miniaturization efforts of the space program, simple computers could be made that no longer needed racks of vacuum tubes, and rooms of specially cooled and conditioned air. For about the price of a new car, you could actually buy one that would fit on your desk!

Prices quickly started to come down, and in 1980, I bought an Atari 400, with 32K of RAM. This machine had a flat panel for a keyboard, and used your television set as a monitor. I soon purchased a second-hand Atari 800, with 48K of RAM, and a regular, full-sized keyboard. With these, I happily banged away, writing Basic programs (mostly simple games), and learning about the ways computers worked, even writing my own 6803C Assembler In all of this, I was assisted by a community of other programmers, freely giving their advice, and dispensing their knowledge, via books, magazines, and Bulleting Boards accessed by a 300 Baud modem.

In addition to Atari, Commodore was selling home computers (most notably the C-64), Radio Shack had the TRS-80, Texas Instruments had one, and many other companies joined in, as well. We all played happily together, learning about these marvels, and sharing our knowledge. Even Apple played along, with its Apple ][ systems. Then, one day, IBM and Microsoft introduced the IBM Personal Computer.

My initial, gut reaction was, "There goes the neighborhood."

Welcome To My Blog

2006-02-10T20:59:00.000-06:00

What can I say? Every new blog has to have a welcome message in it.

Some of you may know me as the moderator of the Civ3 forums at the Civilization Fanatics Center. Others may know me as a poster on LinuxQuestions.org, or MandrivaUsers.org. Others may know my brother Mike's Ramblings page. Or many of you may not know me at all!

Be that as it may, You will probably come to know me all too well over the coming wekks and months.

Enjoy!