The Elysian Fields

Okay, not really.

But I do need to borrow one for a while ~ I need to recover some stuff off the ol' UNIX box, which is running a p100 on a skywired 486 motherboard that I think, perhaps, was used as the nav computer on one of the ships when Columbus discovered America...

If anyone has a PC/AT keyboard ~ or a PS/2 with a PC/AT adapter ~ that they could get to me here and let me borrow for a few months... well, that would be great. I think I might have tossed the one I had ~ or it's buried in storage ~ and I'd really like to try to get into the UNIX box and go over it to see if there's any lost poetry to be found.

~ ~ ~

Speaking of lost poetry, I recovered ten poems today. I had posted them on LJ, but didn't get them from wherever I wrote them to a hard copy or one of more persistent storage systems. That was the good news.

They were mostly written in May and August of 2007, so they're from a period that I had thought was complete. This is the bad news. I know I'm missing at least ten poems from August 12, 1996 to November 19, 1999, and I suspect there might be some others missing in the early 2000's, but I thought that things were fairly stable from 2004 onward, and that I had everything electronically (in the collection) and in hardcopy. To find that I didn't... worries me.

I just want to get everything gathered and complete and get on with things...

On that latter note, I wrote eight new poems yesterday. That's 586 present and accounted for, but likely a bit over 600 when the strays are gathered.

[Poor kid woke up in the middle of the night with a hacking cough, and he wasn't feeling too great this morning...]

hoarsely: I caught a computer virus from spending too much time on the computer...

Yeah, this couldn't wait until tomorrow...



Thanks to kradical for pointing this out... =)

So yeah, last night I stood in line out side of an Apple store due to an iPhone disaster incident.

No, I don't own the older, slower iPhone. I don't own the newer, faster one.

On top of that, I don't even *want* to own one.

As with most people waiting in line outside of the Apple store, I wanted something other than an iPhone. Some wanted to plunk down larger chunks of change for a brand new computer - much pricier than the iPhone. However, because yesterday was the international launch of the thing, they made all non-iPhone customers wait outside.

I just needed a connection from DVI to VGA so I can do the presentation today.

Took less than five minutes once they finally decided they could let me in and help me. Took an hour to stand there and wait for the iPhone customers to clear out enough for them to do that.

Oy.

~ ~ ~

Anyway, things overheard in line:

"So where's the line for things other than iPhones?"
"The line is for things other than iPhones."

Car drives by, occupants cursing the iPhone and us idiots standing outside waiting to get one: "You know, the sad thing is, all of us agree with them - they're just voicing our opinions. We couldn't agree more. Although, we might say it a wee bit more pleasantly."

Various talk about what non-iPhone products we use. Turns out there are three Verizon customers there. "So, if that crowd of Verizon employees was here for each one of us, we should easily be able to storm the gates and get in..." and "False advertising, we don't even have the 'can you hear me now' guy on our side."

Discussing various navigation devices for cars: "And it can even speak in British English!" proclaims one lady, to which I reply, in a horribly under-utilized British English type accent: "Right then, off we go to the pub! Turn left here. No, you need to turn left. I don't care where you want to go, we're off to the pub! Now turn around, turn right, and stop at the pub."

~ ~ ~

Anyway, off to the presentation! =)

Very intermittent Thursday and Friday, to completely mostly dead yesterday.

Today I went in and routed out the router, and messed around with wires and plugs and thingies - and... I think it might just be a bad cable, or a lose connection.

Oy.

So, back up and running?

Maybe...

Because I can be on an XP box, using Remote Desktop into a 2k3 Server, and, when I wake up the XP machine, it says:

Caps Lock On as I go to type my password.

Thanking its helpful nature, I press the Caps Lock key (which I haven't pressed in at least 3 weeks, and certainly not today, since the XP machine has been on).

And I log in.

Of course, the 2k3 box also went into password protect mode and came out of it, only now it reports:

Caps Lock On as *that* password dialog comes up.

So I press the Caps Lock key a second time, and log in successfully... only... I find out that now, the 2k3 and XP environments look at the Caps Lock differently than they have all day up until now. They have become out of sync.

So when I switch from one to the other, I'll have to remember to press the Caps Lock key so that it is always off. Because, you know, what I'm doing is mostly case sensitive (and where it isn't *required* it is case sensitive for readability standards).

Yeah, that's why Microsoft rules the world - because their software is so well engineered it can't even agree on what key is pressed at any given moment.

. . .

Don't look at me - I'm not the idiot sending them money, I just work for someplace that does.

From today's Shark Tank:

Hey, Mom!
New employee expense system no longer just uses a password; now it also asks one of several questions at random when a user signs on. "These are fixed-form questions such as 'What was your mother's maiden name?'" reports a pilot fish on the system. "During initial setup, I entered the answer, which was four characters. I received the message 'Answer must have a minimum of six characters.' Tell me that I'm not going to have to write down the answer to that one...."

...that Micro$oft Windoze is actually built upon DOS, we are served with this reminder:

"Please restart your system for the changes to take effect."

For reference purposes, this would be like having to go out and crank start your Hummers and Lexii and Mercedes and Orang-utans and Porsches and BMWs and all other cars that presume to be spiffy, elegant, or made since, oh, the 1920s or so.

Stone age software, coming soon to a Vista near you...

My dad will be published in a medical journal... Dr. Zhu called my mom earlier today to ask for permission.

The rareness of the type of cancer and the speed at which it moved make it article-worthy, as there are lessons to be learned and so forth.

Not quite consolation for the first Father's Day without my father, but a nice gift nonetheless.

~ ~ ~

In other news, patrixa continues to be frustrated with her Macintosh, and is moving to a Dell/Windows system, because she thinks they are friendlier, easier to use, less likely to be hacked, and less likely to crash. :: thunk ::

Yes, I have explained to her that is not the case, but there you have it. On the plus-side of it, I'll get the G6.

On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men
By Everett A Warren
March 14, 2004

Presented as part sixteen of sixteen

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Part One
Previous

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( Part Sixteen )

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Reference Links

17. Charlie Chaplin – Final Speech of "The Great Dictator" (also known as "Look Up, Hannah")
**** http://www.clown-ministry.com/Articles/Poetry/chaplin-great-dictator.html
**** http://promontoryartists.org/lookingcloser/movie%20reviews/A-G/chaplin.htm

~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

. . .