The PHP programming language is 10 years old today. A large part of what I do these days is PHP development—I’ve got it running web sites, parsing web server log files, running command-line batch processes, and more. Thanks to Rasmus and the PHP community for making it all possible!
For a good roundup of the 10 year coverage, go here and here.
But I’m really not. If I’m burning out on anything, it’s work and the daily routine of it. As a consequence, blogging takes a backseat and even though I have things I want to write about, when I’m finally at the computer at a point where I can, I just don’t have the energy or ambition to do it. Which is ironic, since what I’d really rather be doing is blogging/writing full time instead. But alas, I haven’t yet (figured out how to) (gotten to the point where I can) make enough money doing that…
So I dunno, I’ve been thinking about this whole podcasting thing lately… and while it sounds like it might be fun to do (and people used to tell me all the time that I have a perfect voice for radio… but not so much anymore… I wonder why that is?), I really just don’t have the time or energy for it. Besides, what would I talk about? I already have my blog for incoherent rambling, there’s no reason to clutter up bandwidth with large audio file of that…
That’s the other worry: bandwidth issues. Last thing I really want to deal with is hosting large media files and getting hammered.
Any Oregonians podcasting? I know Jack Bogdanski was experimenting a bit with it. Anyone else?
Now that the TV season is mostly over I thought I’d post one of my self-indulgent rants on the various television shows I watched and how I’m still a slave to the tube. So, even though everything is over and everyone who was going to watch has watched, there will be spoilers. Click through to read on.
…Jake of UtterlyBoring that is. He posted an item today about our local Wal-Mart being open 24 hours, mentioned it to Barney, and a story showed up on the Z21 news NewsChannel 21 this evening. Barney confirms it in the comments.
That’s hot.
June already? Geez, where’d the time go? It’s not like May wasn’t a full month… some highlights:
Hmm, that’s all I can think of right now. June promises to be a busy month, too. There’s a potluck at work tomorrow, a neighborhood BBQ on Friday, a kids birthday party on Sunday, our anniversary, a friend’s college graduation, and more I’m sure.
Perhaps we should do a blogger get together this month?
…I’ve been tasked with putting together this monstrosity of a swingset. I’ve had help, my father-in-law yesterday and today, and tomorrow my dad pitches in. We may finish tomorrow.
Happy Memorial Day to everyone else. I’ll likely be cursing before the day is out.
This is astrologically interesting, if you’re into that sort of thing: What Does Your Birth Date Mean? Here’s what came up when I plugged in mine:
| Your Birthdate: December 23 |
| With a birthday on the 23rd of the month (5 energy) you are inclined to work well with people and enjoy them.You are talented and versatile, very good at presenting ideas.
You may have a tendency to get itchy feet at times and need change and travel. You tend to be very progressive, imaginative and adaptable. Your mind is quick, clever and analytical. A restlessness in your nature may make you a bit impatient and easily bored with routine. You may have a tendency to shirk responsibility. Very sociable, you make friends easily and you are an excellent traveling companion. |
Seems mostly accurate, except for the “very sociable” part—I can make friends easily enough but out of the gate I’m much more introverted and shy.
Found via Doc Searls.
Okay, that’s not exactly true: we got our internet service back at work around 3:30pm or so. But that still means we spent the better part of a day without.
The problem, as it turned out, was a dead SAS unit. (I have no idea what “SAS” actually stands for; it’s basically like a cable modem for the wireless broadband nonsense.) Not the cranes at all. What’s truly irritating is that it took OneEighty two days to figure this out, and most of today for the tech to “prep” the new unit. What, are they stored in a vault under guard somewhere? Seems to me techs should have spare SAS units in their trucks, ready to swap out at a moment’s notice.
So I spent the better part of the day in a bad mood at work, continuously fielding the inevitable “Is it fixed yet?” and “Why aren’t we up yet?” questions and basically spinning my wheels. Ridiculous. Now we’ve lost two days of productivity and I just know I’m gonna be in a bad mood at work for the rest of the week.
Needless to say, I plan on switching us over to a hard line as soon as possible; I’ve already got some paperwork in motion. What a pain in the ass.
At work, that is. Our internet connection was down the entire day. And there wasn’t a thing I could do about it except wait for the tech from OneEighty Networks (née HighSpeed Communications née EmpireNet) to try to fix it. With no luck.
The problem? Well, for starters we have OneEighty’s goofy LMDS “wireless broadband” service, which, instead of an actual T1 or DSL or other hard line, employs a line of sight microwave relay system to connect to the internet. “Line of sight” means that anything getting between the roof antenna and the transmitter on Awbrey Butte will block the signal and put you out of commission. Oh, and really foggy/rainy/snowy/etc. days can interfere with the signal too.
(This was all set up well before I started with the company; I just inherited the problems.)
So today it was offline, and the tech can’t figure out why, but his favorite theory is that one of the new giant metal construction cranes that went up last week is blocking the signal. Sounds reasonable, except the crane went up last week and we didn’t start experiencing any problem until today (or possibly yesterday but no one was in the office to tell for sure).
So work sucks when there’s no internet, because it really drives home just how much we rely on having a live connection. Probably 90% of what I do requires internet access. Stupid crappy “wireless broadband.” I think I’m calling around tomorrow for quotes for a real connection.
