me talking out loud

Well we are in the midst of the second storm of the season. The first one was a tropical depression - rain, thunderstorms, really nasty stuff. This one is an official typhoon - though we will only be getting winds of tropical storm force (25 - 60 mph). Nice and windy.

Originally the winds were only supposed to be topping off at 45mph - so we didn’t bother to put up our shutters. Of course when we got up this morning - that had changed. So at 5:30 AM I was stuck putting up the shutters all by myself in the pouring rain. My husband has duty so he couldn’t go in late - thus he could hangout and help me. Finally finished putting up the shutters at ~6:15 AM, so I was soaked through to the skin. If the wind wasn’t blowing so much it wouldn’t have been to bad - but since it was, it was kinda cold.

Work was nice enough to give me the morning off. Depending upon the weather, I may also get the afternoon.

Herald Sun: Greenspan takes final bow [29aug05]

Hold on to your stock certificates ladies and gentleman - when greenspan retires there with be tremors in all the markets.

Google Talk

Google IM… Hmm. Will try it out. hehe - like I need another IM. already have msn, jabber, yahoo, and skype.

Google Announces Google Desktop 2

Hmm - interesting

The local University is out of their mind. They are giving people degrees in Computer Science who know more math then computers. To get an idea of the local Univ. idea of computer classes… I enrolled myself in their Programming I class (We will just say that I thought there were some things in it that I thought I could use).

Well the Instructor I had been talking too earlier resigned a week before classes and a new instructor was brought in. First day of class I asked to speak with the new instructor to see if he will be teaching the same material (so I can see if I should stay in the class). He informs me that he will be teaching the class in a different way - covering what he beleives is “more inline” with what the class needs.

His idea - start with “What is a computer and what is it made of… hardware, peripherals, CPU (basic computers 101), to “touching on” flowcharting and pseudocode, using BASIC and maybe later pascal for block logic with a touch of javascript at the end. OOP will not be covered (that is for Programming II - in java).

That is the only 2 programming classes a CS major out here has to take (At least as far as I know). I also beleive (Though I have no proof) these are the only classes where the student actually writes code.

Call me nuts - but to me there is something wrong with this picture.

Since I hate being one of the last people to know things I have finally signed up for the PHP Internal mailing list (and the PHP Documentation list). With all the talk on the mailing lists about the new PHP6 branch in the CVS - I figured it was about time to start paying attention. As for the Documentation list… been kicking around the idea of helping them out for a little bit. Figure the first step is to actually start paying attention to what they are doing rather then letting my mind make it up for me.

Crap. Guess this means I have to learn about CVS now too. One more thing to add to my list (under Perl, HTTP and Linux, above ruby, python, javascript, CSS and regular expressions). When will it end?

Finally got around to uploading a few pictures. Put in Kai at 1 year old and pictures Jason took while in Korea. Now if I can just find those pictures from the second time we went to Siapan…

Well a couple of days ago lunatech (Raj) and I quietly released the August edition of the PHPC Gazette on the PHPC content mailing list. Here is the announcement:

“The second edition of PHPC Gazette is hot off the presses and available to you at http://www.phpcommunity.org/gazette/2005/july/index.html. In it we have Raj Shekhar’s Part II for image manipulation with PHP, a walk down memory lane with various people for PHP’s last 10 years, the discussion for PHPC’s copyright licensing, a beginners introduction to arrays, and finally Threads of Interest.

We want to know what you think about the gazette itself as well as it’s articles. What would you like to see in it and what don’t you like that is already in it? Want to write an article for a future edition, please let us know. We are always looking for writers. Please tell us by dropping a line to gazette (at) phpcommunity (dot) org. “

I fubared though… if you notice the link has the month of july in it. I was supposed to change it to aug - but forgot. Luckily Raj could that magical apache thing and have the link automatically go to the correct place. Thank goodness he could save my butt.

If you get the chance, take a look at the articles and tell us what you think.

FT.com / World / US - $100m to visit far side of the moon

I want to go into outerspace.. I want to see the curvature of the world - no boundries, no lines. If I had the money - I’d do it in a heart beat. Will have to wait - but I will do it one day.

More discipline mulled for U.S. general over affair

Wait a second. He and his now ex-wife were seperated from May 04 (over a year ago)… and he is being charged with Adultery now. How long was this supposed affair going on for? Wonder if his now ex-wife is the driving force behind it. Ugly.

I have never been so frustrated as I am now. Trying to learn Perl and fighting with the module documentation is driving me crazy. I thought I had the beginnings of an MUA a while ago using the module POP3Client. Guess not since I get locked out of my email box everytime I try to access it with the script (first time works - every time after that locks). And no - the module doesn’t use flock on the box. Something about the script is triggering the lock.

Started to look into MIME-Tools just out of blind frustration… And the docs have my head spinning. Figured it was time to go to the basics (since I was having problems doing the basic stuff like looking for the inbox.lock file and deleting it - ended up just using a PHP script to do it).

So far just reading the first chapter of “Learning Perl” has helped alot in clarifying things - and that is simply a language summery chapter. I think I’m going to need at least a week to get my metaphoric feet under me with Perl before I’ll try the MUA again. Hopefully I won’t be so incredibly ignorant by then - just mostly.

Maybe one of these days I’ll learn to look before I leap - but where is the fun in that.

VOA News - Death of US News Anchor Peter Jennings Ends TV Era

Shock… so young… so quickly - only 4 months.

No Internet today at work… The whole town’s DSL was down…Can’t check email…. can’t check out my usual forums and websites…. no comic… no news… no music… What is going on?

Good side of it - played games all day.

MercuryNews.com | 08/03/2005 | President reignites evolution debate

“Intelligent Design” - not in my schools please - unless you are willing to argue it on it’s scientific merits not it’s religious. Then sure - go for it.

Current update of Anatahan Volcano, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Anatahan Volcano is located 120 km (75 miles) north of Saipan Island and 320 km (200 miles) north of Guam.

It is nasty outside. Grey haze everwhere and the smell of sulfur in the air. I have a headache that just won’t go away. Rain that leaves a grey ashy residue. Can’t wait for the winds to shift the gases and ash away

Scotsman.com News - International - Joy and grief as brain-dead mother gives birth to girl

Wow.

Hackers demonstrate their skills in Vegas

Alot of this makes you sit up and pay attention.

Well I managed to get my first Perl script (written completely by me) working. It is only a sad little static web page, but it runs. Woohoo. Now I just have to make it actually do something. Maybe a form next…. hmmm. Then it will be time to move on to the mail modules. Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire! Sink or Swim - seem to be in this situation alot when I code. Such is life.

Telegraph | News | Planet casts new light on solar system

A 10th planet… Cool. Wonder what Roman (or is it Greek) god it will be named after.