One Last Look
The day has finally come. The truck is being loaded. In a few short hours we’ll be on the road to Phoenix.
Hungry Mouths to Feed
Several weeks ago a couple birds decided to take up residence on our balcony. They built a pretty impressive little home on the sprinkler head. It’s been quiet up there, but today while cleaning off the balcony I noticed several broken eggshells below the nest and happened to look up.
Nighttime on Ballybran
Anyone get the reference?
Impure Thoughts
Impure Thoughts
Free at Last!
Yesterday was my last day at DISH. My eighteen months there was—without question—the absolute worst experience of my entire career. Maintaining my professionalism in the face of such unrelenting unprofessionalism exhibited by the immediate management and most of the members of my department was a huge drain, both physically and emotionally, and something I hope to never go through again.
That being said, I did gain some additional Windows 7 proficiency that I didn’t have before coming on board, I received formal OS X training, and I made two new friends (forged through fire as it were), the only positive things to come out of the whole experience.
My exit interview was enlightening, only because it confirmed that our H.R. representative already knew about what had been going on down there.
I didn’t use the phrase “Feculent Vat of Toxic Hellstew” to describe it, but I so wanted to.
Her eye rolls and other non-verbal reactions to my answers to her questions told me all I needed to know and I finally said, “I’m not telling you anything you haven’t already heard, am I?”
She replied, “No, but I need multiple data points before any action can be taken. And I wish you had come to me earlier instead of letting it come down to this.”
Like anything would have changed had I done that—and I told her as much. As long as my manager has the protection of our department’s VP, nothing is going to happen.
If nothing else, it felt good to get it all off my chest.
Now I can begin to detox, and by this time next week—as I came to realize when we were on vacation in Atlanta a couple months ago—it will return to being nothing more than the distant, tiny, petty little box of toxic hellstew that it truly is; not the center of the universe as it would like to intimidate its employees into believing.
W00t! Back Online!
From NASA:
NASA’s New Horizons on Track for Pluto Flyby
Science Operations to Resume for On Time Encounter
The recovery from a July 4 anomaly that sent the New Horizons spacecraft into safe mode is proceeding according to plan, with the mission team preparing to return to normal science operations on time July 7.
Mission managers reported during a July 6 media teleconference that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft resumed operations on its main computer overnight. The sequence of commands for the Pluto flyby have now been uplinked to the spacecraft, and full, as planned science observations of Pluto, its moons and the solar winds will resume at 12:34 p.m. EDT July 7.
The quick response to the weekend computer glitch assures that the mission remains on track to conduct the entire close flyby sequence as planned, including the July 14 flyby observations of Pluto.
“We’re delighted with the New Horizons response to the anomaly,” said Jim Green, NASA’s director of planetary science. “Now we’re eager to get back to the science and prepare for the payoff that’s yet to come.”
The investigation into the anomaly that caused New Horizons to enter safe mode on July 4 has confirmed that the main computer was overloaded due to a timing conflict in the spacecraft command sequence. The computer was tasked with receiving a large command load at the same time it was engaged in compressing previous science data. The main computer responded precisely as it was programmed to do, by entering safe mode and switching to the backup computer.
Thirty observations were lost during the three-day recovery period, representing less than one percent of the total science that the New Horizons team hoped to collect between July 4 and July 16. None of the mission’s most critical observations were affected. There’s no risk that this kind of anomaly could happen again before flyby, as no similar operations are planned for the remainder of the Pluto encounter.
“This is a speed bump in terms of the total return we expect to receive from this historic mission,” said Dr. Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator with the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “When we get a clear look at the surface of Pluto for the very first time, I promise, it will knock your socks off.”
This is Disturbing
Especially with the New Horizons project going on for nearly a decade and now being so close to Pluto…
From NASA:
The New Horizons spacecraft experienced an anomaly the afternoon of July 4 that led to a loss of communication with Earth. Communication has since been reestablished and the spacecraft is healthy.
The mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, lost contact with the unmanned spacecraft — now 10 days from arrival at Pluto — at 1:54 p.m. EDT, and regained communications with New Horizons at 3:15 p.m. EDT, through NASA’s Deep Space Network.
During that time the autonomous autopilot on board the spacecraft recognized a problem and – as it’s programmed to do in such a situation – switched from the main to the backup computer. The autopilot placed the spacecraft in “safe mode,” and commanded the backup computer to reinitiate communication with Earth. New Horizons then began to transmit telemetry to help engineers diagnose the problem.
A New Horizons Anomaly Review Board (ARB) was convened at 4 p.m. EDT to gather information on the problem and initiate a recovery plan. The team is now working to return New Horizons to its original flight plan. Due to the 9-hour, round trip communication delay that results from operating a spacecraft almost 3 billion miles (4.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, full recovery is expected to take from one to several days; New Horizons will be temporarily unable to collect science data during that time.
“This isn’t 1935”
Ready For This To Be Over
It’s not just the wall-to-wall clutter. It’s also the anxiety. Once again I find myself stepping off that cliff, trusting in the Universe that employment will be quickly forthcoming once we’re back in Phoenix. I’m somewhat reassured that I’ve been getting lots of emails from recruiters after simply updating my profiles on the various job boards, but there isn’t really much I can do about any of it until I’m actually there—other than acknowledge their receipt and ask their patience. (So far, everyone’s fine with my timeline and have told me to get in touch once I’m there.)
I’ve also reached out to previous coworkers, who have forwarded my resume to their respective managers. Hopefully networking the good relationships I built over the seven years I spent at Abrazo will come in handy before I have to do any cold interviews.
In any case, we’re down to less than a week, and I just want all this—at the very least, the physical moving part—to be over.
Next Saturday at this time we’ll be packed and on the road, beginning the next chapter of our lives with Denver and it’s bipolar weather and heinous drivers rapidly fading into memory.
Four years ago we wanted an adventure. We got one. It’s now time to go home.
The dogs are anxious; they know something’s up. Normally well trained, they’re both peeing everywhere now. Sammy is barking at every sound outside, and even the heretofore quiescent Bobo has developed a voice.
My stress is manifesting in the return of an old friend I haven’t seen in nearly seven years, plantar fasciitis. Thankfully I still remember how to deal with it, so it’s more an annoyance than anything else, but I wanna say, “Really dude? Now?”
Monday is my last day at DISH. My exit interview is scheduled for 4 pm (I normally leave at 4:30), and anyone there I care about saying goodbye to leaves at 4, so I’ll have time to do so before the meeting with HR and being shown the door. They’re going to get an earful, even though I know nothing I say will make any difference whatsoever.
Impure Thoughts
Someone’s been working out since last season. Woof.
Caption This
“That’s No Moon. It’s a Space Station!”
Science is cool.
From NASA:
New color images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft show two very different faces of the mysterious dwarf planet, one with a series of intriguing spots along the equator that are evenly spaced. Each of the spots is about 300 miles in diameter, with a surface area that’s roughly the size of the state of Missouri.
Scientists have yet to see anything quite like the dark spots; their presence has piqued the interest of the New Horizons science team, due to the remarkable consistency in their spacing and size. While the origin of the spots is a mystery for now, the answer may be revealed as the spacecraft continues its approach to the mysterious dwarf planet. “It’s a real puzzle—we don’t know what the spots are, and we can’t wait to find out,” said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder. “Also puzzling is the longstanding and dramatic difference in the colors and appearance of Pluto compared to its darker and grayer moon Charon.”
New Horizons team members combined black-and-white images of Pluto and Charon from the spacecraft’s Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) with lower-resolution color data from the Ralph instrument to produce these views. We see the planet and its largest moon in approximately true color, that is, the way they would appear if you were riding on the New Horizons spacecraft. About half of Pluto is imaged, which means features shown near the bottom of the dwarf planet are at approximately at the equatorial line.
Flamethrower
I put in my notice at work yesterday. Even before my boss had come in, I had this IM conversation with her boss:
While I wasn’t the one to let it slip, this woman has known for weeks that I was leaving and on what day—as confirmed by “I had been waiting,” so don’t be acting all surprised, honey.
When my boss came in about fifteen minutes later, she was rejoicing that starting next Monday she was going to be out on vacation for two weeks. One of my coworkers (who I had informed of my departure after sending my resignation email a few moments earlier) piped up and said, “Well that’s two of you gone.”
“Who’s out next week?”
“Mark.”
“I don’t remember seeing that. Is it on the calendar?”
“No,” my coworker continued. “He’s out for good. Monday is his last day.”
At that point I chimed in and said, “You haven’t read your email yet.”
She looked at me and the looks that crossed her face were priceless. First shock, then anger, and then it was as if a curtain dropped. “Really? I’m happy for you…and a little jealous.”
Believe me, she won’t be so happy after my exit interview with HR.
I can’t describe how happy and relieved I am that this horrible experience is finally coming to an end. Working for ██████ has been the absolute worst experience of my professional life, bar none. (You know you’ve lost the respect of your employees when the threat of termination is perceived as a reward, not a deterrent.) I kept hoping that things would improve—hence the reason I haven’t quit sooner—but they never did. It was only after Ben and I spent a week in Atlanta and I had a chance to detox (it literally felt like that) I came to see that despite its belief to the contrary, ██████ is not the center of the known universe. And my department especially is nothing more than a 30′ x 30′ square box of fecund hellstew; hence the brutal—and I must say, liberating—honesty with my manager’s boss.
The main reason I didn’t put in the customary two-week notice? Again and again I’ve seen the way this company treats its employees and I didn’t want to risk being immediately escorted from the building after putting in my notice (it’s happened). One week’s wages I could—though not ideally—live without, if necessary. Two weeks was an unacceptable loss. While the escorting didn’t happen, I know I’m going to be screwed over somehow before this process is complete. In fact, I’ll be surprised if I’m not.
Oh Myyy…
You Know You’re From Arizona When…
1. You can say Hohokam and no one thinks you’re making it up.
2.You no longer associate rivers or bridges with water.
3.You know that a “swamp cooler” is not a happy hour drink.
4.You can contemplate a high temperature of 120 degrees as “not all that bad, after all it’s a dry heat.”
5.You know that you can make sun tea outside faster than instant tea in your microwave.
6.You have to run your air conditioner in the middle of winter so that you can use your fireplace.
7.The water coming from the “cold” tap is hotter than that from the hot” tap.
8.You can correctly pronounce the following words: “Saguaro”, “Tempe”, “Gila Bend”, “San Xavier del Bac”, “Canyon de Chelly”, “Mogollon Rim”, “Cholla”, and “Tlaquepacque”, “Ajo”.
9.It’s noon on a weekday in July, kids are on summer vacation, and not one single person is moving on the streets.
10.Hot air balloons can’t fly because the air outside is hotter than the air inside.
11.You buy salsa by the gallon.
12.Your Christmas decorations include a half a yard of sand and 100 paper bags.
13.You think someone driving while wearing oven mitts is clever.
14.Most of the restaurants in your town have the first name “El” or “Los.”
15.You think six tons of crushed rock makes a beautiful yard.
16.You can say 115 degrees without fainting.
17.Vehicles with open windows have the right-of-way in the summer.
18.People break out coats when the temperature drops below 70.
19.You discover, in July, it only takes two fingers to drive your car.
20.The pool can be warmer than you are.
21.You realize Valley Fever isn’t a disco dance.
22.People with black cars or have black upholstery in their car are automatically assumed to be from out-of-state or nuts.
23.You know better than to get into a car/truck with leather seats if you’re wearing shorts.
24.Announcements for Fourth of July events always end with “in case of monsoon…”
25.You have to explain to out-of-staters why there is no daylight savings time
26.You can say “haboob” without giggling.
Stolen from my husband.
It’s Been a Very Bad Week in Wingnuttia
And I couldn’t be more delighted.
First it was upholding “Obamacare.”
Then it was the Confederate Flag.
And the icing on their fucking big cake of sadz was Marriage Equality in all 50 States.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.
Love Wins!
“Today the Supreme Court fulfilled the words engraved upon its building: ‘Equal justice under law.’” ~ Bernie Sanders
Boys Will Be Boys (NSFW)
Critters! (NSFW)
If It’s Shot in Black and White, it’s Art (NSFW)
Boys Will Be Boys (NSFW)
Just Run With It (NSFW)
Mirror Mirror on the Wall (NSFW)
Of Course They’re Coming to Denver
…long after we’re gone.
Public Service Announcement
THIS.
Yup.
Why Can’t They Just Put it all on One Chip?
This was a question I initially posed to a friend of mine back in high school while we were discussing one of our favorite shared passions, audio equipment. Digital amplifiers were starting to appear on the scene, and I wondered aloud why all the circuitry couldn’t be shoved on a single slab of silicon and be done with it. My friend (who knew electronics on that level) said it was theoretically possible, but you wouldn’t be able to build an amplifier in the 80-100 watt per channel range we were currently enjoying because of the heat and power constraints. This was the age of “big iron” in audio, after all.
A few years later when I first started getting into personal computing I found myself asking the same question. Why can’t all this crap be put on a single chip, or at least on the main system board?
Why did I need separate plug-in cards to control hard drive? Why did I need a separate card to control the I/O functions? Why did I need a separate video card? WHY COULDN’T ALL THIS STUFF BE ON A SINGLE BOARD?
Well, for starters, at the time the technology just wasn’t there; we’re talking the 8088/286/386 era, after all. The first few computers I owned (built from parts I’d gotten at computer fairs) had banks of discrete memory chips on the system boards and a 20 MEGAbyte drive was considered big! Good luck trying to troubleshoot a bad chip if you ended up with one. That’s why I was dancing in the streets when the first DIMMs started to appear. Imagine that: four (or however many) memory chips soldered to little circuit boards that just snapped into the system board!
As the years progressed, I was happy to see that I wasn’t the only one who had been wondering why all these discrete items couldn’t be made part of the system board, because slowly drive controllers and I/O found their way onto motherboards, and before long, even video was becoming a standard part of the build. You could still buy souped-up peripheral cards, but they were no longer a necessity to build a functioning system.
And now here we are in 2015:
Just look at what Apple’s done with the latest MacBook. We still aren’t to the point where everything is on a single chip, but we’re damn close. That tiny system board not only contains the CPU, memory, and controllers, but also the machine’s solid state “hard” drive.
Being the inveterate nerd that I am, I’ve always taken great pleasure in peeking at the guts inside my tech, and I have to admit, as we get closer and closer to the “everything on one chip” I used to dream about, a part of me is kind of disappointed there isn’t a whole lot left to look at when you pop the hood.