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For a variety of reasons, my experience with Unix remote computing has been entirely shell based. That is, I use the command-line to connect to the remote computer, and then do everything that I need to do on the command line. I know, I know: "1972 called and they want their command line back." It's just that most of the work I do disallows any complex connections.
I've been using X11 on the Mac since I got OS X, but only for local applications. (Frankly, I avoid using them because I just prefer the Mac interface designs.) Recently I was assigned to create a bunch of Mac user documentation for the scientific groups I'm working for. X11 came up and I discovered, much to my surprise, that I could have been using a GUI to interface with these servers over here.
Plus, I could have been running weird Linux apps over on one of the other servers. X11 is just the windowing environment: the application would still be running on the remote machine but would be displayed on my Mac. Because we have some of the fattest pipes in the entire world, there's no real delay.
This would have helped me out when I had to find a UML application recently. i ended up using the Java-based solutions.
What was I thinking?
At least we'll have that one and only canonical episode from the Star Trek cartoon series where young Spock learns how to deal with the taunts of the "full bloods" to help her navigate through her growing years.
L thinks that she's an Elf.
Either I get help with my taxes or someone who can tell me what that exit sign says over there.
Recently, I decided that it would probably be decent of me to expand my podcast listening from IT and weird science-y radio shows to include some Reformed teaching. You know, actually start listening to something that might mention God in a way that doesn't assume that He is a figment of our collective imagination. Unfortunately for me, one of the first things I downloaded was a lesson by R.C. Sproul on the Lord's Prayer. Well, at least I think he said it was on the Lord's prayer. Much of what he said seemed to ignore it altogether and even just plain contradict it.
So the question: Is this Guru of the Godly just being lazy or can he really not read?
My server got hacked by a known method through FrontPage extensions. I've been a *nix user for some time, and started hosting here off of Linux because Catalog.com was running Solaris, which I rather like. (I'm pretty sure that I'm now running on RedHat Enterprise Linux.) I don't use Microsoft at home, and even my old Win2K box is unaccessible any longer, since I have apparently forgotten even the administrative passwords. Frankly, there's nothing there that is worth getting back.
So it is pretty frustrating to have been hacked through FrontPage extensions.
I did an interview with the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago. It's a very interesting place, doing some wonderful work. I'm not sure if I will want to take a job with them but they seem to be head and shoulders above anyone else that I have worked with.
Of course, I may end up getting a poor boss who isn't capable of being my boss, so it may not be that great of a position. I think that it's a fairly decent group and I would be able to create my job without having to answer to someone as low a level as I do today. Which would be pleasant. Plus I genuinely enjoy working with the people that I work with over there. They tend to expect that you will do the impossible on a regular basis and figure out how to do it without a lot of guidance. Bu they are considerate and enthusiastic when you solve their problems. The folks I working with now can't see any value to what I bring, so what can you do.
We had some difficult visitors recently who upset our newborn for a couple of days by deciding to raise a stink that probably stems from the fact that I just don't have any emotional trust in them. It's probably the last straw for me and I'll more than likely never see them again in any more than passing. I'm just closing the book on years of contempt for me, my work, my life and my values.
The girl has bounced back and is adorable anyway. We sure do like her. She cries enough but those little gimmicks from Happiest Baby on the Block sure did help. Wow. I have to modify them and she's definitely got a sensitive heinie so we go through a lot of diapers. Maybe not: it just seems like it to us new parents, probably.
It was a very, very, very long wait for her and I stopped believing that it might happen. And here she is!
