Tom at 16

Week of July 15th, 2002

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Friday July 19, 2002

It's been quite a ride around here weather-wise for the past 24 hours. The "spectacular thunder storm" I mentioned in my post yesterday was apparently much more than the thunder and occasional downpours we witnessed in North Saskatoon. Several areas just outside the city limits were beat on with golf ball-size hail, and flooding was reported in several other areas. Yesterday afternoon a tornado watch was posted for the Saskatoon area, and while nothing came of the warning, it's still in effect for some northern communities. This morning it's overcast and cool (well, cooler -- about 70 degrees) but the forecast is for temperatures in the 30's (about mid-nineties) by later this afternoon. There's a saying here in Saskatchewan -- if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes; it's sure to change. No shit...

I finished up my latest IBM tutorial late last night. Learned lots in the process, and I intend to deploy some of the LDAP stuff I learned when time permits. The installation I set up for the tutorial is pretty much hosed from all the hacking and changes I make (some of which didn't exactly produce the results I intended ;-), but I have detailed notes so I can re-create things and avoid the potholes next time around.

I've got some research to do, but I'll check in later.

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Thursday July 18, 2002

It's going to be another scorcher today... We had a spectacular thunder storm last night, complete with some much needed rain. At its peak the lightening was so intense I actually shut off all computers in the house except Hydras. The sky is clean again this morning, however, and the moisture still lingering in the air is quickly evaporating. Unfortunately, while the rain did wonders for our gardens, it also did wonders for the mosquito population. Bleh.

My latest IBM tutorial is coming along nicely (Creating an LDAP-based Address Book); I should have all the configuration quirks worked out shortly, and the balance of the code segments tweaked shortly. Then it's just a matter of writing up the balance of the requisite material to accompany my discoveries. Just.

The rape and subsequent murder of young Samantha Runnion has left me sickened. What would compel someone to commit such a heinous act is beyond my comprehension. What really troubles me, is the fact everything was "done right" -- the child was educated by her parents about talking to strangers, she was under supervision by a grandparent, when she was abducted she kicked and screamed all the way into the car, and the police were on the scene within 4 minutes. FOUR minutes. All of which leaves me feeling very uneasy and even somewhat paranoid concerning my own children's safety when they're outside. And here I am, living in one of the safest countries, violent crime-wise, in the world.

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Tuesday July 16, 2002

Sorry. I really did intend to return last night and post more, but by the time I got my workload for the day it was after 1am.

It's a tad cooler today (and yes, mid-hundreds was a typo; it was about 105 yesterday) with some high overcast and a bit of a breeze. A welcome relief.

Mmm... lessee now... the trip to Vancouver was moderately successful from my perspective in that I managed to get through a fair wack of work despite the interrupts and inconvenience of working away from home. The kids had fun, and Leah had a good visit with her family. Nuff' said on that topic. Next year, if Leah and the kids want to visit Vancouver they can take a plane.

My ratio of working to borked computers dipped below acceptable levels yesterday. I still have to arrange to get my laptop in for repair, one of my workstations running XP needs a YANTI, and Leah's computer has some kind of HD problem (No time to investigate that one just yet). That leaves Hydras, and my development server (Thor) running RH 7.3. My laptop works -- after a fashion -- it's just annoying as all hell to have to squeeze and twist it to get a viewable screen. Hydras just runs. As matter of fact, I had to restart a system service yesterday and I couldn't for the life of me remember the command ;-) it's been at least six months since I did anything on the system (other than connect via SSH, NFS, or SMB to share/transfer files); it would seem my AIX skills are tad rusty...

I've got a badly behaved LDAP configuration to work through this afternoon and an IBM tutorial to complete by Thursday. I'll be a busy boy until then, but I'll post short notes in the meantime.

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Monday July 15, 2002

We arrived back home Friday, safe and relatively sound (well, as "sound" as any adult could be after spending 24 hours in a car with two kids). I avoided all electronics until today. In retrospect, that probably wasn't such a good idea as it took me *several* hours this morning to wade through email and catch up on all the mailing lists I "hang out" on.

HOT has been the operative word around here. Temperatures over the weekend climbed into the mid-hundreds. Our tomatoes and green peppers love the heat -- we do not. I'm not really complaining (one does not complain about heat given the length of the winters in Saskatchewan); more like a snivel or muted whine.

I'll check back in later when it's cooler and my brain un-swells...

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