Chris Dwan

Author: cdwan

  • Wet day

    Updates:

    * Still raining.

    * The shop(pe) is done with my laptop. They put in a new logic board and a new display. Apparently all of this was covered under warrantee. Sadly, this means that I get to go *back* into Boston tomorrow. I’m gonna be spending a lot of time in town this next couple of weeks.

    * My car is having four new tires installed, right now. Hydroplaning a couple of times on the way north this weekend pushed me over the edge. The current tires have been on the car since I bought it, 74,000 miles ago. That’s 14K over the expected life of the original tires, so I’m satisfied. They needed the change. My new tires include TWO LAYERS OF KEVLAR. Apparently, that’s the big thing this year. For only $5 more per tire, I have KEVLAR!!! Okay, I’ve bought into the hype. They promise that it’ll “increase the handling on my car by 25%!” I have no idea what that means, but it sounds like a good idea.

    * Customers are still, like, crazy-active. My IM started up this morning, since they’ve found that’s whole MINUTES faster than emailing me. Gah.

    * Teaching a class next Friday. Need to write that material. Now.

    * A new store has moved in up the street. “Super Sewing Store!” While this isn’t particularly large in my life, I’m sure that redmed and capital_l will care.

    * Still raining

  • Two cows

    Everyone must go now and waste just as much time as I did, reading the majority of Two Cows from the uncyclopedia. In the future tests of geeky prowess will include the ability to spew forth “two cows” jokes until one of the parties fails to produce a joke. The other party will be declared the victor.

  • Miracles do occur.

    Another episode of “this is really all about me, isn’t it:”

    My brother in law sent me some conservative crap

  • Protected: Slave to public opinion

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  • Cutest picture ever

    My parents found a kitten recently. They took him to the beach, then sent me this picture.

    There are also pictures from the incredibly wet weekend in Maine.

  • Work

    Spent the day at Harvard, installing The Software. Went okay, once I got access to the machine. Amazing how many people think that I can install software without a way to log into their machine.

    Customers still too active. Many, many emails. Must sedate.

  • Rainy weekend

    redmed and I were supposed to go camping in Acadia, Maine this weekend. On Saturday morning, we loaded a pile of firewood into the car, along with the tent, sleeping bags, food, camp stove, water bottles, hiking boots, and day packs, plus a change of clothes … and off we went. About six hours later, we turned right at the scenic town of “Bangor” (all teenage boys may commence snickering now). An hour after that, we were on Mt. Desert Island. Home to Bar Harbor (all 21+, yet still teenage, individuals may shout “Yes! Bar!” and pump their hands in the air).

    long winded description of the trip

  • Friday…

    Is this a beer I see before me, handle towards my hand?

    Just got back from a very pleasant dinner with my buddy from BDC. Federal hill is cool. Italians can cook, and employ cute waitresses to boot. Also good to get out.

    It was an entirely good conclusion to an entirely crazy day which began with a frantic phone call to support an installation of The Software in Shanghai, proceeded through a public reaming from a dissatisfied customer, and concluded with three solid hours on the phone with a guy who was doing exactly the opposite of what his boss wanted him to be doing. On Tuesday, we’ll throw away those three hours and replace them with the work we should have started with. Some days, you’re the rock star, some days, you’re the groupie who couldn’t get backstage passes.

    As to the haiku craziness that seems to be going around:

    Z sub N plus 1
    is Z sub N squared, plus C
    Z 0 was C

    Mapped ‘cross the complex
    plane this formula gives rise
    to natural art.

  • You’ve got pictures!

    Okay, I’m grumpy today.

    To: AOLPicturesHelp@aol.com

    Whenever my friends and family send me a link to a shared album through "You've Got Pictures," I'm stopped by the message that I must use the Netscape browser to access their pictures.

    If this is because of a technical difficulty, youur web design team should be fired. Their inability to make a site that works with any browser except Netscape is evidence of incredible incompetence.

    The other option, that this is a deliberate choice, is even worse. Why bother to put a product online and then, right off the top, cut your market 90% or so?

    On reflection, it's probably the latter. I sense some hare-brained idea about forcing consumers into using the Netscape brand of AOL. The fact that your company would deliberately break your online service so as to force me to use a particular browser is insulting and infuriating. You're making the world a worse place. Please stop it.

    If you want people to switch to Netscape as a browser, make a better product. If you want people to use your online service, make it easy to use.

    Either way, you've got a pack of imbeciles loose in the headquarters. Best to root them out before they make any more decisions.

    Sincerely,

  • Wants it.

    Plus, of course, the follow on:

    The Kraken has been found alive off the make-believe island of Japan. Scientists trapped one and he had to rip off a tentacle to escape. So now they are angry. Our days are numbered.