Digital Choke Daynotes

 Monday, April 4, 2005       mail    link   the story

We missed out on our grandkid fix yesterday. Pam's been working on a cold, and Max (the youngest) was developing another ear infection. So we had a quiet day at home, watching the conference sessions, along with a nice nap. We'll have to get our 'fix' later this week.

I spent the morning working on finalizing the information security web pages. It's sort of an on-line training class for the employees. The hope is that it will become a required part of all employee's training. I figure that they might find the time for a quick 'web lesson' instead of finding an hour for a staff meeting. So I got all the pages working, along with a short test. I'll gather the person's answers via an email, although it will be anonymous. I'll get my boss to look at it, then we'll try it out with the folks in the IT department to look for content problems.

I also worked on the Access database of the employees in IT. There's a bit of reorganization going on, so the phone list needed to be similarly reorganized. I'm not that good in Access reports, but it is presentable. I just wish there was a function that converted name strings to proper case (initial caps).

Now that it's Daylight Savings Time, we get a bit of extra sun when we get home. It was a great day today, with temps in the 70's. After we got home, Pam and I sat on the back patio for some reading time. It was quite pleasant out there. During the summer, the back yard gets a bit warm -- it faces west, so the afternoon sun can warm things up a bit. The patio is actually most of the back yard, although there is a bit of shade. We also have a patio cover, so that helps. But it's quite pleasant during the spring.

After dinner a quick trip to the grocery store, with a stop at Baskin Robbins for ice cream (Rocky Road for me). A pleasant day.

 Tuesday, April 5, 2005       mail    link   the story

I noticed that Google's maps now include satellite images of the map. (Go to http://maps.google.com ) It looks like the maximum resolution is about 1/2 mile, and the maps are not necessarily current. I looked at my home address (no, I am not going to tell you) and the picture looks about 3 years old.

But it is an interesting way to look at things around your neighborhood.

At work, I gave up on trying to do a phone list with Access. I switched over to Crystal Reports, and was able to get a much nicer looking phone list. I suspect that I could have done something similar with Access, and Crystal Reports has it's own challenges, but I liked the results using Crystal Reports. And it's a program I need to learn for other purposes, so it was time well-spent. Although I suspect that I spent a bit too much time with that final tweaking: moving things around just a bit to get a visually pleasing list.

 Thursday, April 7, 2005       mail    link   the story

I was way too busy yesterday. Didn't get home until a bit after 10pm. Nothing exciting, just busy.

I noticed the successful test (from the Nimitz carrier group off of Southern CA in March) of a spy plane about the size of a magazine (see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7408216/ ). The "Wasp" has a 13 inch wingspan, weighs 6-7 ounces. No info on range/speed/altitude, although this one is launched by hand. It has two cameras (fore and aft) that feed live video information. It can navigate a pre-programmed or relayed flight plan using GPS. An earlier model ran for 100 hours in 2002. Can't find any info about how long it will fly now.

More info on the "Wasp" can be found at the C4ISR Journal , which has all sorts of interesting information. And you might also want to take a peek at the DARPA Tactical Technology Office site for other interesting research.

It looks like a fun toy, with all sorts of interesting and even nefarious applications.

I plan on a relaxing evening tonight, catching up on my TiVo viewing.