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New user? Wednesday, October 11, 2000
Shaw, WTF are you smoking?
As I mentioned a while ago, I recently got a Digital Satellite System to replace the Shaw Cable TV I had previously.
Well, yesterday Shaw finally came to unplug the cable TV hookup. Guess what, they also unplugged my Shaw @ Home cable modem hookup! ARGH! I've been offline since 5:30 PM yesterday.
This is so typical of my experience with Shaw, it was practically a guarantee that this was going to happen to me.
I didn't even get to update my Oilogger site for the Montreal game last night. Now my weblog calendar is going to be all screwed up, thanks to them.
It's worse than it appears
The way things are going, I don't expect October 2000 to be on my list of all-time favourite months.
The latest dilemma: my dogs. I've had 2 dogs, Cinnamon and Chubby, for nearly 6 and 5 1/2 years respectively. My daughter loves them... they bark too much and that really drives me nuts, but other than that they're great, they're certainly family.
But... lately, I've been hearing Cinnamon yelp in the back yard, for until now unknown reasons. I could never get to the window fast enough to see what the problem was... until, today.
This time, Cinnamon just wouldn't stop screaming. I got to the window to see Chubby biting Cinnamon's front right leg, squeezing it in her jaw. Chubby is half-Akita so she has a VERY strong jaw. Poor Cinnamon!
Here's the dilemma. Throughout my entire childhood, I was taught that once a dog bites, it's not trustworthy, and could bite anyone at any time for any reason. This is not the first time this has happened, there were all those previous times I couldn't get to the scene-of-the-crime fast enough to prove what was happening.
Furthermore, I was taught to believe that once a dog is untrustworthy, you cannot keep it. In fact, it's best for the dog to be destroyed, because, and I'm paraphrasing, the dog doesn't mean to be bad but it's ruined and it's no good for the dog either. Now, I'm not sure I believe that last part, but I do believe in the rest of it.
So, it looks like I have to get rid of Chubby. This is breaking my heart! Cinnamon and Chubby are my first dogs of my adult life, I've kept them even through the bad times out of responsibility and loyalty. How can I do this? How can I NOT do this, I can't and won't risk letting Chubby bite my daughter.
Please, I need your advice. I'm pretty set on my decision, but it'd help to know that others think this is the right thing to do. If you totally disagree, please let me know. If you know where I can take Chubby where she'll be well taken care of, please let me know.
Tears.
Damnit.
Tuesday, October 10, 2000
Sunday, October 8, 2000
so-so article on OS X for Intel
eWeek: Thinking outside the Cube: Mac OS X for X86
This article started out great, saying the author didn't get the deluge of flames he expected for mentioning OS X for Intel, but then this...
Learning from BeOS
Okay you lost me. I love the BeOS, I've bought EVERY publicly available version ever released for the x86 platform including 5.0 Professional, but you can't compare it to OS X. Sorry. I didn't finish reading the article.
Jaron and his Manifesto
Salon: Artificial stupidity -- about Jaron Lanier's "ONE HALF OF A MANIFESTO".
I was lucky enough to see Jaron Lanier in person in 1993(94?) at the University of Victoria. I don't remember the exact reason for the visit, there must have been some sort of VR or Internet or Cybersomething going on. I missed his electronic virtual-reality music demo the night before (argh!!).
Hmm, maybe this was just after new backbone for Vancouver Island was installed which UVic was the hub for, maybe it was something to do with that and all the Internet-related cyberspace goodness it would bring to the school. I dunno.
Jaron was on stage with William Gibson, who read 45 minutes of a draft of what would become "Virtual Light", a novel I rushed out to buy in hardcover but still haven't read (sigh).
Oh, Gibson's narration was so awesome. His American accent, I still remember it clearly. I had just finished reading Neuromancer, had only been on the Internet for about 2 years, all VT100 of course via the Victoria FreeNet Association, on my Macintosh LC II 4MB/40MB with a 14.4 SupraFAXModem v.32bis external modem (that was very fast back then! My friends with 9600bps modems thought they were fast!)
If I remember correctly, and I might not, Jaron spoke about all sorts of things that evening -- VR, Cybertech, Internet, music, etc. He and Gibson talked about various things together, and the audience participated. Did I ask a question? I think so, but I can't remember what. Damn, why can't I remember these things?! It really upsets me I can't remember these things. Sigh. For some reason I think whatever I said/asked was really stupid and was hacked to bits by Jaron.
I had a picture of Jaron (I still have it somewhere), a side-profile of him with his big hair. I think the picture was from Monday magazine or the UVic student newspaper. He hung on my wall, a hero, I wanted to do what he did.
