Archive for June, 2001
June 1, 2001 at 04:00
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- It took a few hours to get onto a flight in Toronto, so we didn’t get back to Montréal until 20h30 or so. It’s good to be home.
- The North Carolina trip was basically a disaster. I’ll write more about it later, but I’m too exhausted to want to go through it again right now.
June 3, 2001 at 04:00
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- We had a low-key going away dinner for Zach at our place. Tyla was in town for the weekend, plus Deb, Alice, Troy, George, Adam, Jerome, Mike, and, of course, Zach. Lots of yummy food, and a pretty bad movie.
- I’ve started playing Deus Ex, which is incredibly addictive. I better get through it before I start on Asheron’s Call.
June 4, 2001 at 04:00
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- Finally, by calling the corporate office and skipping the hundreds of unthinking and unhelpful customer “service” representatives at American Airlines, I’m going to have some cheques reissued and finally get nearly a grand in interest-free loans back.
June 5, 2001 at 04:00
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- Hacked chainsaw for a while at the office, and then went home to play Asheron’s Call. I’m consistently impressed by the high ratio of incredibly helpful old-timers vs. immature twinks.
- Did some laundry; wished Zach off to his new/old home; had lunch with Deb and Alice at the Jean-Francois House of Crepes and Oyster Bar.
June 6, 2001 at 04:00
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- Did some more laundry before work; I really need to get a dresser, since I don’t have the integrated shelving in my new home.
- Apparently Simon just threw up; it’s that extra-special touch to Mike’s vacation.
June 9, 2001 at 04:00
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- Game 7, tonight, Colorado! I predict that New Jersey blew their one chance at home in game 6, and that, just like the Toronto series, there’s no way that they can come back and win game 7 on the road. Besides, Colorado is clearly the better team, and Ray Bourque needs a Stanley Cup.
- Mike, Tyla, and I got our hairs cut at Tonic; it was so overdue. I cannot allow it to get so overdue. Mike and I have a pact, we will force each other to go more often.
- Mike went to Ultimate practice, I stayed home and moved the office furniture around, which took about 3 hours. I’d just sat down to read my book when he returned, with George and Rita in tow!
- Tyla made some excellent pasta with a simple garlic, oil, and vegetable sauce for dinner, and we filed dutifully into the living room to watch the game. Even Rita, who doesn’t even really like hockey, got into it enough to at least mock us.
- Colorado won, of course, and Ray got his cup. It’s about time.
- Rita is convinced that I have two more years of growth left. I have many years of growth left, but I think she means vertically.
June 10, 2001 at 04:00
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- What a lazy Sunday. Mike and I played Asheron’s Call for a while, made some food, read our books, played some more, watched TV, really a lot of nothing.
- Tomorrow I’ll move the last of my stuff into storage, buy a dresser, and head to Costco. Maybe I’ll go to work, too.
- CIBC paid up, so I should really remember to go close my account and send those letters to federal banking regulators. It’s on my to-do list for this week.
- Contract hunting is going well, I have three really strong leads, and a couple other possibilities. I should probably start looking into the Canadian immigration and tax issues that will abound if I start contracting. God knows Canada doesn’t seem to want me to just live here, bringing US dollars into Canada while paying Canadian taxes and not taking up a local job. No, sir.
- Ah, I should also file my taxes one of these days, being almost 6 weeks late. The US taxes are almost due, too.
June 11, 2001 at 04:00
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- Today was the day of real chores; we bought a dresser and some balcony chairs at Ikea, moved the rest of my stuff to storage, and bought an outrageous amount of food at Costco.
- One item, although not outrageous in and of itself, was the 6.5 kilogram side of beef–$129. We butchered it very nicely, if I do say so myself, and made two of the best steaks that I’ve ever had for dinner. The beef turned out to be absolutely top quality, stuff that I wouldn’t hesitate to make into tartar. I’m stunned that we managed this quality from Costco, but I won’t hesitate to buy an even larger chunk when this runs out.
- I’m so glad we have a big freezer. We’re finally putting it to good use.
- Dealing with our legal department for my immigration matters is so touching. I know that these are rational, logical, and very smart people; a legal department that I have been happy to work with in the past! But sometimes… In truth, I don’t know whether to blame legal or HR, but since I interact with legal directly, it’s more tempting.
June 12, 2001 at 04:00
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- People are going to rant about the death penalty today, so I might as well stir people up a little bit while I’m at it. I don’t have a strong position on capital punishment, but I do have a strong position on the public’s right to witness capital punishment.
I’m a little disappointed that the lawsuits to open up the execution chamber to cameras failed, because I think it’s incredibly important. If the government is going to make a conscious effort to end the life of one of its citizens, it is the public’s right, or perhaps duty, to witness such an event. If people are disgusted by it, then as a nation people will decide whether their disgust outweighs their vengeance. That’s how society works.
This is perhaps the most important act that a government can perform, the killing of its own citizens, and it’s critical in my mind that it be a completely public event.
- Enough of that. I put my dresser together last night, but we need to move a bunch of furniture around in the office before we can get some of Mike’s things out of my bedroom, before I can move my dresser in, before I can get the last of my stuff out of Steph’s room. Sigh.
- Alice: want to kill your geranium? Try salting it; I’d love to hear how well salt works in practice. Speaking of which, Deb, how’s the tree we gave you doing?
- I got through to our legal department today, with wonderful results. I’m back to my previous position of legal being one of the more rational departments at Zero-Knowledge.
- George came over after their ultimate game for stir-fry and movie watching. We watched In the Line of Fire, at first with the commentary, but we gave that up after 5 minutes or so and just watched the movie. It was just as good as I remembered.
June 14, 2001 at 04:00
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- Stayed at home most of the day; did some laundry, read some of my book, laid in the sun for a while.
- Went to ultimate practice with George, which was a lot of fun. A dozen or so people showed up, which was enough to run a couple of drills and play some light scrimmage.
- Afterwards, I collected my mail from my old apartment, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that my landlord isn’t living there yet; I was going to have to demand part of June’s rent back if he’d already found a tenant or moved in himself.
- Met up with most of the folks from practice for dinner at Mondo Fritz and a walk around the street fair. Adam, Rita, George, Melissa, and this woman whose name I’ve already forgotten because I’m an asshole.
June 15, 2001 at 04:00
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- Went into the office for a company meeting; was impressed, in a way, since the presenter seemed to understand company morale in a way few do.
- Suffered through a nearly unbearably hot day; it was 30 downstairs, at least 35 upstairs, and probably 45 with the humidex. We need box fans, just to get more cool air in at night. And, maybe, even the slightest bit of insulation in this god-forsaken box.
- While flipping through the channels, Mike, Tyla, George, and I stumbled upon Tommy on one of the French channels. Wow. Wow. The 70s never cease to amaze me. I learned one thing, though: that deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball.
June 16, 2001 at 04:00
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- Went to Canadian Tire to buy a dehumidifier. We’ll see if this improves the living conditions in any way; didn’t buy any box fans, as I’m only one man.
- Went to ultimate practice, despite the fact that it was clearly not going to give us some blissful rain.
- Wow, did it ever pour. Pretty much out of nowhere. It made the disc slippery, but cooled things down a lot. Only Rita and Adam joined George, Mike, and I, but we threw for an hour or so, then headed to Santropol.
- Rita stumbled upon Tommy last night also; I can’t believe that that movie happened to be the point of pure cultural homogeneity that television producers and clothing importers strive for. Hah! We fooled them! They didn’t even bother trying to sell ad space during the movie!
- On our way home from Santropol we were subjected to lightning strikes closer than I’ve witnessed in years. We got into a taxi roughly 10 seconds before the downpour began anew.
- We returned home to discover that the lightning had set off one of the door alarms (it’s a vibration sensor). If any of our neighbours are reading this, I hope it wasn’t too loud. Sorry.
June 17, 2001 at 04:00
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- Mike and I returned to Canadian Tire and bought 4 box fans. They have a much-touted venturi grille design, which provides powerful air delivery and 30% more velocity. Cheesy marketing aside, they seem to work really well; there’s quite a draft in the hallway now.
- Hacked on Sparrow a bit, made regex folder rules work. Next up, caching the folder contents, since regex will only make the already slow matching intolerably slow.
- Words fail me.
- I had a surreal conversation with my dad:
Him: What are you up to this week?
Me: Oh, not much, taking a few weeks off work, blah blah blah.
Him: We were thinking of coming to visit you.
Me: Oh? When?
Him: Tomorrow!
Not a problem–timed very well, in fact–but very, er, surprising.
- Argh, RIM crippled their messaging SDK. Fuck them with an open ladder. Why do I even bother trying to write useful software for this god forsaken operating system?
- Mike, George, and I were informed that we had two modes of conversation: “geeky” and “bad Saturday Night Live skit”.
- George, Mike, Rita, and I saw The Anniversary Party at the newly christened AMC Pepsi (ugh) Forum. The venue is repellent, but the movie was quite good.
June 18, 2001 at 04:00
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- Folks will probably start driving today, arrive tomorrow. That gives us time to clean up a bit, at least.
- We moved some more furniture and books around, so my bedroom looks basically like a bedroom now, and the den is almost usable.
- Did a little more Sparrow hacking, stayed angry at RIM.
- We made awesome pasta sauce with some leftover ground tomatoes and meat cuttings that we were going to use for stock.
- Watched some Newsradio, played a little Asheron’s Call. Didn’t think much about work.
- 26 days until July 14th.
June 19, 2001 at 04:00
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- My dad and stepmother arrived today, without calling in advance because he’d transposed the last two digits of the phone number. Oh well. I wasn’t getting that worried about them.
- The four of us walked down to Atwater to buy things for dinner, and told them about various local points of interest. While I helped them find and check into a hotel on the plateau, Mike grilled some very fine marinated hens that we got from the butcher.
- We ate quickly, then Mike headed off to the ultimate game. My folks and I wandered north partway up the mountain, and then east towards their hotel on Sherbrooke; a brief look at some of the more interesting outdoor bits of downtown.
June 20, 2001 at 04:00
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- Mike and I met up with my folks for soup and noodles before they started the drive back to Ohio, perhaps with a small detour in New York. They had only positive things to say about the small hotel they stayed in, so now we have a better place to send people than the crummy, expensive chains.
- Came home and sent some contract-hunting email, did some Sparrow hacking, played some games for a bit. Watched Newsradio and made leftover pasta. Fell asleep early.
June 21, 2001 at 04:00
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- Did some stuff, went to ultimate practice. You’re welcome.
- I’d just like to state that I had absolutely nothing to do with the frisbee that hit Alice in the back of the neck. She didn’t even wave to us, or come over to say hello. When I looked back, she was gone. Oh well.
- Ate some stuff at a place. Learned things about viruses and cloning and Beaver Lake.
June 22, 2001 at 04:00
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- Mostly hacked on sparrow today; implemented some advanced folder rules, so that you can finally do meaningful things with the folders. Still need to do the caching and fix some of the counting bugs.
- Tyla came home for the weekend, some family in tow. Pretty nice folks, on the whole.
- We miss you, Alice! Come visit us!
June 23, 2001 at 04:00
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- Woke up for an early ultimate practice; a surprisingly good showing, all things considering.
- Mike and I ate at a previously-unknown Chinese restaurant for lunch on St. Laurent; pretty good–I can safely recommend both the salt and pepper squid as well as the Kung Pao chicken.
June 24, 2001 at 04:00
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- Hacked Sparrow for a while; did a lot of great stuff, but haven’t quite finished. Rewrote most of the folder matching, counting, and caching code, since it was a totally inefficient disaster.
- Hordes descended on Rita’s apartment for a St. Jean Baptiste party, from which we walked to the street party a few blocks north. Mike and I, being totally incompetent, forgot what time the party started and arrived just in time to leave the apartment. The street fair was a blast, though, and we ran into a fair number of acquaintences. Good food. Mmmm, food.
June 25, 2001 at 04:00
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- Happy St. Jean Baptiste day!
- Alice came over to do a pile of laundry, since her laundromat was closed for the holiday, and her visitors had used pretty much every item of bedding that she owns. Lots of visitors in a one-room apartment are fun, I’m told.
- We ate dinner at George’s and played a great 8 hour game of Titan. It’s starting to grow on me, but I made a lot of mistakes that I sometimes only realized several turns later, or when George would point it out. More practice required, perhaps.
- We got home at 05h15, I started some email and went to sleep.
June 26, 2001 at 04:00
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- At 10h15, the doorbell rang. Motherfucker. Of course this would happen the only morning in recent memory that I go to bed at 06h00.
- It was a Bell “technician” here to upgrade our DSL to 3mbit. Great!
- It should have tipped me off when he had “260″ as one of the octets in the IP address that he was provided. 20 minutes to establish that they really meant “206″ rather than “26″ or “62″ or pretty much any other number, 20 minutes to decide how to test the network and get his laptop running, 30 minutes of screwing around on the phone, and nothing works.
- While the tech was out to lunch (literally and metaphorically), Mike got email from our ISP (Velocet; run, do not walk, if you live in one of their services areas. They are the best.) telling us what the problem was: that some of Bell’s equipment was down and that they’d renumbered the VLANs without telling either Velocet or the technician.
- 60 minutes later, the technician learns from the Bell mothership that they just noticed that the equipment was down. We were met with stunned silence when we pointed out that our ISP had known that for over an hour.
- This whole time he’s telling us how nothing’s going to work because we don’t have a router. We, of course, as people who understand the technology, point out that he’s trying to test without a router, and so clearly, one doesn’t need a router. He tries to tell us that he can send and receive pings, but not “get on the internet” without a router. We stop trying.
- In the meantime, since we acknowledge that it will only bridge one IP, we put together a masquerading gateway from one of Velocet’s old BSD machines and some spare bits. The technician’s memorable quote as I carried the machine into the room, “You have a router in there?”
- Nothing works, and we’re interested in moving this process along, so we connect his laptop and the DSL bridge back into the hub so that I can at least debug in parallel.
- I configure the interface and it works, first try. Upon further examination I discover that his netmask is wrong, and that was what caused his tests to fail for the last n hours. We quickly and quietly escort him to the door. As Mike points out, we’re just lucky to still have working phone service. The wonders never cease with Bell technicians–and no other ISP I’ve ever come anywhere near would have been able to help us with our BSD issues, certainly not by calling the owner’s cell phone, or finding him on IRC.
- Wow, I just got one of the strangest phone calls ever. This woman called, speaking in a very quiet voice, at first in Chinese. After I got her to switch to English, she asked if this apartment could house Chinese immigrants. She asked if we could switch back into Chinese, and that’s when I think it dawned on her that she may have called the wrong number. It was mildly tempting to *69 her and find out exactly what sort of Chinese immigrants she needs to find housing for, but I have an idea.
June 27, 2001 at 04:00
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- Woke up, showered, had lunch with the CEO. It was really very good, we talked about a lot of things, and he seems to really get it. He may indeed be the only person who can fix the company, and luckily, he’s also the least insane. We’ll talk again after I get back from vacation, to see if there’s anything Zero-Knowledge can possibly do to keep me here.
- Deb finally accepted our invitation to come eat dinner with us; we didn’t really have anything in the way of, say, vegetables, but the steak and onions were quite good. The bag leaked a little as we thawed them, but they turned out just fine.
- Deb went home to play Asheron’s Call, Mike played Anarchy Online, I tried desperately to finish Deus Ex. We were a complete portrait of the modern loser, but I don’t really care.
June 29, 2001 at 04:00
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- Woke up, did some cassis hacking. It’s almost there.
- Mike made steak, eggs, and hash for breakfast. Not tremendously heart-healthy, but a great way to start your… afternoon.
- More cassis hacking, watched some Newsradio, generally basked in being on vacation.
- Played some Deus Ex and realized that it’s not as close to being over as I’d like. It’s a great game, and I’m enjoying playing it a lot, but it’s getting a little frustrating at times and I’d like it to please end. I can’t just give up on it, though, because I’d like to see how the story ends, and what choices exist after where I am.
June 30, 2001 at 04:00
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- I was going to head to Ottawa for the Canada Day weekend, but I woke up sick. I setup cvsweb for sparrow, cassis, rimsim, et. al and went back to bed.
- Slept a bit, did some reading, ate a little oatmeal. It’s Canada Day weekend, I should be in Ottawa! Argh!
- To cheer myself up, I dragged my laptop into my bedroom and started hacking on the Blackberry simulator for Linux that Adam Fritzler started work on. He did some of the bits that I was least looking forward to (and, to be honest, least qualified for, though that was part of my motivation), and it can almost properly execute one of the applications that comes with the device. My first attempt will be to see if I can fix up the LCD code that doesn’t seem to be rendering the calculator properly…
