Mokka mit Schlag » 2006 » April

Yesterday afternoon I hopped over to Jamaica Bay to look for the White-faced Ibis Sean Sime and Rob Jett found on Thursday. I didn’t locate it, nor did a couple of other birders who were out looking. (I did hear that it was relocated this morning, exactly where it was on Thursday. Maybe it’s just a morning bird.) However I did get some wonderful closeup looks at my first Indigo Bunting this year:

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I’ve just started catching up on the first season of the new Doctor Who–a.k.a the ninth doctor–via the Sci Fi Channel and other sources the MPAA would prefer I not have access to. I used to be a big Doctor Who fan back in the day; but after the sixth and seventh doctors, the unimpressive TV movie, a fifteen year hiatus, and a wife who found the whole Dr. Who series to be pretty much unwatchable, I’d lost touch with the good doctor. However, Russell Davies (Queer as Folk) seemed like a really bold choice for a new producer so when the SciFi channel picked up the U.S. rights I tuned in.

What I saw nearly blew me out of my seat. Even my Who-hating wife agreed. This is a great show.
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I get occasional requests for the source code to the WordPress theme of this blog. It’s really just a few small modifications on the default Kubrick, nothing major. However I haven’t officially published it yet because:

• I haven’t bothered to figure out how to bundle up and distribute a theme.
• The theme includes some things unique to this site like my own Amazon associates ID, my own Google ads, and my own headshot. This would all need to be factored out so you could replace it with your own.
• There are still some bugs in the theme. The most important is that in Safari the sidebar tends to drop below the post if the window is too narrow. The second most important bug is that in short posts bottom of the sidebar aligns to the left rather than staying on the right.

I’ll cut a deal with those who’ve asked for the theme. If you can help me figure out how to fix those two layout bugs (without using tables, or placing the sidebar content before the text content in the HTML) I’ll take care of figuring out how to bundle up and publish the theme for general use.

During the boom years it felt like I was travelling to San Jose or the Bay Area every month or two. I usually flew American. Round trip was about $2200 without a Saturday stayover. I saved up my frequent flyer miles primarily for first class upgrades on these cross-country trips.
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Something weird happened on my TiBook running Tiger sometime in the last day or two. Somehow my home directory got locked. I can see it and read files, but whenever I try to delete anything I’m asked to type in my password. And simple shell commands like “cat > test.txt” fail with a “Operation not permitted” message when executed within my home directory. The same command works outside that directory, both above and below it. That is, I can create new files inside directories inside the home directory. It’s just the root level of the home directory that’s giving me troubles. The directory is encrypted with FileVault for whatever that’s worth.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Any suggestions?
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Cars have always been a problem for NYC Audubon trips since they meet in Manhattan, and few Manhattanites have cars. On occasion I’ve rented a car to drive on one of their trips. Recently they got so tired of trying to recruit drivers that they decided all future trips would use a bus or van, advance registration only, and nobody from the outer boroughs would be allowed to meet them at the site in their personal vehicles. Everyone has to go to Chelsea first.
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