I could hardly believe what I found when I opened up the server. One of the fans had been literally scotch-taped and rubber-banded in place! I'm not even sure why this was done, as all the necessary parts were there, the plastic mounting bracket just hadn't been snapped into its holes. The tape and rubber bands had actually failed, and the fan was flopping around loose in the case - lucky it didn't cause any damage. I re-installed the fan correctly, cleaned out the dust and debris, including a wad of lint that had wedged itself into the blades of the CPU fan, preventing it from spinning. Everything seems to be behaving now, not really any quieter than before because the fans are just getting old, but I don't think there is any cause for concern about overheating.

I recommended an upgrade/replacement, of course, but for their needs, they can probably get by quite a bit longer on this Linux box.

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Among the several fun things we did was a little 90-minute pleasure cruise on the bay with one of the touristy sailing operations at Pier 39. It was a two-mast vessel, maybe 40 feet or so in length. We asked the first mate what sort of keel the boat had, and he said it was full-length, weighs 17 tons, and hangs five feet below the hull. We all enjoyed the peaceful ride and the beautiful views of the bridges and the islands.

My mother-in-law in particular has always been fascinated with sailing -- she collects all kinds of artwork depicting sailboats and full-rig sailing ships. We hadn't even really thought about that when we booked the cruise -- we just thought it would be something fun to do together. The real kicker for me though was when they made the off-hand comment that this was the first time they had actually been on a sailboat -- neither of them had ever sailed on the open water with only the wind powering the boat. It never occurred to me ... they've lived in inland locations most of their lives, somewhat close to the Great Lakes. but still just never had the opportunity. Without realizing what we were doing, we had checked off an item on their "bucket list".

Kinda makes me think that I need to pay more attention to the things that fascinate me, and make sure I'm seeking opportunities to experience things first-hand. What puts the wind in your sails?

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It turns out that the letter inside was written by a young man six years ago and addressed to himself, probably part of a project for a school class or youth group. It contained reminders of who he was back then, what was important to him, and what were his dreams and goals for the future.

I did a little googling and discovered that not only does the guy have a facebook account, but we even have a couple mutual friends. I scanned the letter and sent it to him. He was very thankful to receive it.

So, there's my warm fuzzies for today. I hope he gets to look back and see that he turned out OK.

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What if the system gave real-time feedback while the new password was being created? I'm working on a project to do exactly that. PasswordCoach watches each character of the new password as you type it, visually checks off each requirement as it is met, and provides interactive hints. When you're typing the password a second time for confirmation, if you mistype a single character the hint text will tell you right away so you can fix it. A graphical password-strength meter shows a rating of how crack-resistant your new password will be.

I hope to use this code as part of a scripted account-migration process during an upcoming server upgrade at my company. If you'd like to check out this work-in-process, I would welcome any feedback. You can download a self-contained demo that allows you to test the interactive features without actually changing any passwords, or you can grab the source code (AutoIt3 script) and modify it for your own purposes. Let me know if you find it useful.

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06-17-09_1951.3gp

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OK, so I'm sure hundreds of thousands of other bloggers with more insightful comments than me will be posting about this, but I'll still put in a quick shot. Google Wave http://wave.google.com is creating a major buzz following a recent developer demo. The video makes it look pretty good, with the most significant emphasis on the real-time interaction and open extensibility.

Wave promises to re-define the paradigms of email, instant messaging, wiki and other collaboration models by incorporating them all in a unified protocol. The prototype client-side tools run entirely in the web browser but behave much more like a native desktop application. Conversations can occur in character-by-character real time, eliminating standard "Suzie is typing..." lag times. Documents can be edited collaboratively in real time with color-coded highlights as they are typed. Everything is re-play-able in a timeline so you can see how the work progressed.

I think there's a lot of potential here. Will Wave supersede all these other forms of communication? Hard to tell. There's certainly a lot of inertia to overcome, or at least accommodate. With the open APIs, it should be possible to integrate Wave technology and build interfaces to existing systems like SMTP and Jabber. I'll also be interested to hear more about how the new Wave protocol addresses things like trust relationships and spam prevention.

Regardless of whether it revolutionizes the world or not, I have to give props to the google team for taking a shot at innovating and changing the way we think about communication. It's also very commendable that they're pursuing this project with as much openness as they can, taking the extra step to allow interoperability and even direct competition in a way that still encourages connectedness across the entire system. Keep up the good work, guys.

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I just discovered the mapmotive app on facebook ... very cool!

moz-screenshot-1.jpg

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Am I a true trekkie? Probably not, I don't even have the pajamas. :-) But I'll admit to being a long-time fan, from the original TV series through most of the spin-offs and movies. I had a blast at the new Star Trek film last night. It's very well done, intense, clever, campy, with plenty of insider references, but still a fun ride even for the uninitiated. The theater we went too had actually over-shot the number of screens they needed to schedule, so the room was not crowded at all, but that didn't diminish the fun of sharing the experience with others. I was with a group of a half-dozen guys and we all had a good time. Some were long-time fans, others had no frame of reference, and everyone enjoyed the show.

The actors did a great job of portraying the classic characters in their full personality, extrapolated back to their prequel younger selves. The writers deftly avoided any nit-picking quibbles about historical consistency with the other shows and movies by neatly packaging everything in an alternate reality, courtesy of meddling time-travelers. Some might see that as a cop-out, but I found it to be a relief, in that I didn't have to waste energy trying to figure out if everything made sense in context with everything else. The plot wasn't very deep, but it provided enough of a framework to get us from point A to point B with plenty of action along the way.

Definitely a thumbs-up for me.

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OK, this blog has sat dormant for too long. Like many, I've been doing a lot more with facebook and twitter lately, and it's great to be able to do more frequent, shorter posts. Still, I need to be doing more substantial writing sometimes too. It's been a wild ride the past several months.

The biggest recent news is that we bought a townhouse, just across town from where we've been the past several years. The market is really in a perfect storm right now for buyers; prices are down, interest rates are down, and as long as you have a decent credit score there are loans to be had.

Plenty more to write about, hopefully I'll get more consistent. Also testing automatic status updates with this post, so it should get linked via pingvine through ping.fm to facebook, twitter, linkedin, identica. We'll see.

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20080726-gig

 Some of my friends have asked me to let you know of any opportunities to see/hear me playing music at local venues. Here's a chance to catch some good live jazz and support a worthy cause. Mark Klein is a friend of mine and a very talented pianist. He's put together a core trio (piano/bass/drums) and has invited several vocal and instrumental soloists to join him for a fun evening of eclectic music. I'll be playing EWI on a few songs. I'd love to have your support and encouragement. Details on the flyer. Feel free to contact me with questions.

update: Here's a photo from the gig:

20080726-desilvas-band

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Last year I wrote about reading the whole Bible in a year. The BibleInAYear website doesn't seem to exist anymore, but I recently completed a second full read, this time using OneYearBible.net with the paraphrase version "The Message".

OneYearBible doesn't send daily emails like BibleInAYear did, but instead it provides a website login with calendar tracking. OneYearBible also offers a sequence that lets you read some Old Testament, some New Testament, some Psalms, and some Proverbs, every day.

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Last weekend my family and I bicycled about six miles in our cycling for schools event. That seemed like a pretty good accomplishment, but then again, my sister is running a full marathon tomorrow. She has run in one before, but she wasn't allowed to finish because they shut the race down due to extreme heat. I have a lot of respect for her determination and discipline. Go Lindy! Go Lindy!

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I turned 40 today. Kinda sobering that I'll never be thirtysomething again, and for the next few months my wife and I will be living in different decades (so to speak) but all in all, it's been a good, enjoyable day. My son scored his first run in little league (got walked to get on base, stole 2nd & 3rd, then ran in on the next hit - he is FAST). My daughter & wife baked me a pineapple upside-down cake. A few friends came over for the evening and we enjoyed good food, some games and hang-out time. I actually feel quite a bit better about myself right now than I did a few years ago, so I'd have to say at least for the moment 40 isn't bad, not bad at all.

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Windows shareware to-do list manager Tudumo has officially launched with it's 1.0 release.

I've been using alpha and beta versions of Tudumo and have become quite addicted. I have over 400 active action items, but with Tudumo I can slice and dice the list using tags, headings, status and dates so that I can always get the most important stuff into the spotlight and give it the attention it needs. Smart keyboard shortcuts and quick find-as-you-type searching make navigation a breeze.

Congratulations, Richard, on a successful product launch.

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Not bad for being shot by a 10-year-old with a cheap 1.3-megapixel camphone ...

media1.jpeg

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My kids and I are enjoying Season One of The Muppet Show on DVD. (fond memories of my own childhood when laughing with Kermit, Fozzie and the gang was a weekly tradition, right after Saturday night bathtime) Show #2 features special guests Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street. Bert croons the classic lyric "Some Enchanted Evening / You may see a stranger ... " and my almost-5-year-old daughter Caris pipes up with "Hey, that's not right ... you're not supposed to talk to strangers!"

manamanah

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I just finished reading Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to See which was recommended to me by a good friend (actually, I went with the audiobook version). The book is about Mike May, blinded at age 3 by a chemical burn and later surgically restored to partial sight as an adult. I found it inspiring, fascinating and compelling.

Robert Kurson does an excellent job in telling May's story. He spent about two years gathering information from May, his family and friends. May comments in an interview that the author now probably knows May better than anyone else in the world. Kurson paints vivid images with words, spanning the spectrum from tactile descriptions of events as May experienced them, to detailed technical explanations of the biology of the eye, to sensual interchanges between May and his wife Jennifer. Kurson's style is both engaging and accessible.

Although I've never experienced total blindness, I have lived with severely impaired eyesight for all of my life. My RS page has a little more info about my condition and how it has affected me. Like me, May is also a technology guy and a musician. I can identify with May in many ways, but I think the biggest take-away from the book is that Mike May sets an example for all of us -- not just those with eyesight impairments or other disabilities. It's about living life to the fullest, no matter what your situation. Life was already great for May before he regained his sight. For him, seeing is more like icing on the cake.

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My son loves to build things. Here's his latest creation ...
 

Knex-2007

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Biking to work rocks. Good exercise, fresh air, sunshine, no gas to buy, and I can smile and wave as I pass by the cars in bumper-to-bumper commute traffic. I've been very fortunate -- almost every job I've had has been within biking distance from where I lived. There were about four years when I had to commute by car or bus, about an hour each way. I gained twenty pounds and missed out on the equivalent of two or three months of time with my family. I'm back to biking now, and I hope I never have to give it up.

A blogger known as "The Naib" has written a nice piece on the practical side of How to ride your bike to work

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