2002 News:

Kyle and I just got back from seeing Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers. All I can say is that I am in a state of shock. It's been many years since I read LOTR, which I think was a good thing because I wasn't distracted by comparing with the book. Peter Jackson deserves a new category of academy award for creating these movies. They are so unique. Gollum/Smeagol is amazing. The only criticism I have is that given what Gimli, Aragorn, and Legolos do during the Helm's Deep battle, it is very hard to believe they survived.

December 26, 2002

Once again, we had a wonderful Christmas. My mom and step dad were with us along with Tess’s mother and one of her sisters. We cooked so much food during the last several days that I don’t think we will need to cook again for a week. We had lobster and prime rib on Christmas Eve. We still have a pork crown roast we never got around to cooking. I gave my step dad a bottle of Remy Martin XO, which we drank in a single night. We were up until four in the morning that night. It was fun.

December 20, 2002

This is a technical entry in case anyone else runs into the problem I just ran into on Windows NT.

I recently installed some software on my Windows NT machine, and when I rebooted, I got error messages like: The procedure entry point ??_U@YAPAXI@Z could not be located in msvcrt.dll. It took me about two hours to find the solution, which is:

• Search Microsoft's web site for "vcredist.exe" and then download it.
• Rename the msvcirt.dll file in your windows system32 directory to msvcirt.old. (DO NOT REBOOT)
• Run vcredist.exe. (This installs the VC++ runtime dll's including msvcirt.dll.)
• Reboot your computer.

It turns out that the software I installed put a version of msvcirt.dll intended for Windows 2000 on my Windows NT machine.

December 14, 2002

I just found out that my DSL provider (DirectDSL) is going out of business. I was really happy with their service. It’s a shame they are going under. On a related note, I am in the process of migrating my web site to Apache2.0/Jboss 3.0/Tomcat 4.1. It’s quite an undertaking, but when done, I’ll have a more robust and secure setup. When I’m all done, I plan on posting an article about my adventure.

Update: I just ordered DSL service from SpeakEasy. They offer a very nice ADSL service for a reasonable price. They also use InterNAP as their provider. InterNAP is a premium ISP. So my web site should become more responsive.

December 9, 2002

Yesterday, we went to the Etowah Indian Mounds in Cartersville Georgia. We climbed up the stairs to the top of the largest mound (which is 65 feet tall) and walked though the small museum nearby. I was a little disappointed at how small the museum was. Many of the artifacts from the earliest digs were dispersed across the country. There really isn’t much to see there, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was kind of eerie walking in an empty field where 2000 Native Americans lived up until 500 years ago. It seems to me that they lived fairly well. Their village was surrounded by a protective ditch and fence. One side of the village was along the Etowah River. It is a very peaceful and beautiful location. The regular flooding along the river produced fertile soil were corn, beans and pumpkins were grown.

December 8, 2002

Last night, Tess and I took her cousin (who is visiting from the Philippines) out to a dance bar. It was the first time in about 10 years I’ve been to one. I was never very fond of the dance bar scene. I was never very successful in meeting women there. I did have a couple of memorable outings during my college years, but nothing spectacular. Bars aren’t the kind of place I like to meet people.

Anyway, It was much nicer being in a bar with my wife rather than being there with my college buddies trying (and not succeeding) to pick up women. It reminding me how lucky I am to be married and how much I hated the dating game. I was never very good at it. In the end, I lucked out and met my wife (via a mutual friend).

While we were at the bar, six guys asked my wife to dance. I was standing next to her the whole time, but that did not stop them. One guy even asked her to dance while we were walking hand-in-hand to the dance floor. It was nice being on the other side of the fence for a change. I used to be one of those guys. Now I’m the one with the girl that they look at and think, “How did he end up with her?”.

The whole experience reminding me how lucky I am. I have a beautiful wife and two beautiful and brilliant kids. I think Tess and I will be going to dance bars more frequently, so that I don’t forget just how lucky I am.

December 5, 2002

I just started hosting The Sons of Mary Web Site as a favor to the Sons of Mary. They are a missionary society that serves South America and the Philippines. They are long time friends of my wife's family.

November 27, 2002

November 17, 2002

I just noticed that Jeff Duntemann has added a link to my site on his site. I feel a little self conscious about that, because I don’t think my site is nearly as good as his. I can’t help but think that many visitors will wonder why he bothered linking my site. Jeff and I first corresponded when I looked him up on the Internet after finding an old copy of his book (Complete Turbo Pascal) in my basement. His book was the first computer programming book I bought for myself (as opposed to having to buy them for school). The book was really instrumental in my effort to master Pascal. My success with Pascal influenced my decision to select Software Engineering as a profession. My degrees are in Electrical Engineering, but I choose software engineering as an occupation because I enjoyed it more than tradition EE work.

I sent Jeff an email telling him how instrumental his book was in my career. Jeff and I have since communicated a few times on various topics he has talked about on his diary page. Having Jeff link to my site really motivates me to make my site better.

The whole idea of people reading about other people’s lives is a little strange, but I must admit I enjoy it myself. In today’s world, we don’t communicate with our neighbors like we used to. I guess reading Internet diaries is a way to commune with and connect to our fellow man. At this point I only read two diaries on a regular basis: Jeff Duntemann's, and Wil Wheaton’s. Wil played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: Next Generation. His site is well written and very honest.

November 12, 2002

Kyle and I have been playing chess for several weeks now. He is quite good (for an almost 6 year old). Once and a while he will unexpectedly capture one of my pieces if I don't pay attention. He can setup the board himself and knows how all the pieces move. He can think at least one or two moves ahead.

November 8, 2002

I am very pleased about the results of our recent election. In Georgia, we have the first Republican Governor in 130 years. It looks like several Democratic state representatives are going to switch to the Republican Party so that republicans will also have control of the state senate. Now that President Bush has a republican congress, they should be able to make some significant changes. Now they can dispel the all the fear tactics of the Democrats. Next election, all the negative ads won’t stick because the US will have had two years of Republican leadership and people will be better off than they are today. The economy will be stronger and the Democrats will have another unpleasant election day.

October 14, 2002

Last weekend we bought bunk beds for the kids. Up until now they have been sleeping with Tess and I. We have two queen size beds pushed together in our bedroom, so we had plenty of room for everyone. But the kids are old enough to have their own beds. Having them sleep in their own beds has been more traumatic for us than the kids. Nicole still wants someone to sleep next to her when she goes to bed, but I don't think that's going to last long.

October 10, 2002

Today we said goodbye to Tess' aunt Lynne. Lynne helped us out quite a bit over the last two years. We will miss her very much. Here are some pictures of Lynne.

October 7, 2002

I am writing this while sitting in my new (slightly used) Herman Miller Aeron chair. Aerons are the BMW's of computer workstation chairs. It's probably the best $500 I've ever spent. I should have bought one a long time ago.

October 4, 2002

Today, Linux is a huge force in the computer landscape. I just thought I would describe how I first heard of Linux. I’m not sure of the exact date, but it was sometime around 1992. I was working at Georgia Tech Research Institute, which is the research arm of Georgia Tech. During a one or two-week period, the building I worked in was having severe problems with its TCP/IP network. The entire network would intermittently go down or slow to a crawl. It turns out that the network problems were being caused by someone tinkering around with Linux. The machine was flooding the network with broadcast messages. When the announcement was made, my first reaction was, “What’s Linux?”. My boss explained that it was a free operating system based on Unix. At the time, I was developing C and Pascal applications in DOS. So Unix might as well been from a different planet as far as I was concerned. How times have changed. Now I am a huge fan of Linux and use it to host this web site.

October 3, 2002

I think it's pretty fascinating that revered stones exist in many religions and cultures. Here are some examples:

• The Dome of the Rock (Jewish, Christian, Islam)
• The Hajr-e-Aswad in the Ka'bah at Mecca (Islam)
• The Stone of Destiny (The Stone of Scone)
• The Blarney Stone
• Shiva Lingam (Hinduism - not a single stone, but a general term applied to many individual examples)
• Kingston's Coronation Stone

October 2, 2002

I really enjoy listening to the radio over the internet. The sound is crystal clear and often, you can listen to archived broadcasts when you have the time. Almost all local stations have streaming audio of their broadcast signal. Here are some good radio links:

• National Public Radio
• All Things Considered (National Public Radio)
• Glenn Beck
• WGST - my favorite talk radio station in Atlanta

September 24, 2002

More aspirin news. A new study finds evidence that aspirin may delay or prevent dementia in the elderly. I think it's just a matter of time before aspirin is put in multivitamins.

September 23, 2002

A couple of months ago my former employer, SummitLogic sold its intellectual property to another company and ceased to exist. I am now happy to report that I just accepted a position with Alebra Technologies. I will be working on their Parallel Data Mover (PDM) product which I helped develop when I worked at CNT. Alebra bought the PDM product from CNT a few months back. Alebra is a small private company based in Minnesota.

September 22, 2002

I'm going to brag a little about my son, Kyle. Kyle is 5.5 years old and very smart. Last week while taking him to school, he asked if there were numbers less than zero. I explained negative numbers to him by counted down from +10 to -10. I then asked him if he knew what 2 minus 3 equaled. In just a couple of seconds, he said "minus 1". After a brief 1 minute explanation, he was able to do simple subtraction problems in which the answer was a negative number. Kyle learned to multiple in about 15 minutes when he was 4 years old. He also reads very well for his age. It's a little scary because we are not sure how to proceed with his education. We like the Catholic elementary school he is attending, however they do not have the resources to keep him challenged. We do our best at home to keep him challenged but we feel like we are short changing Kyle by having him spend 8 hours a day at school doing work well below his skill level. We are starting to look into programs for gifted students now.

September 19, 2002

Microsoft just announced a serious bug in their Java Virtual Machine. I recommend that instead of upgrading to Microsoft's latest VM, just uninstall it and use Sun's VM instead. To see if you have the faulty MS VM, open a command prompt and run Jview from the command line. If it runs and displays version information, then you have the MS VM installed. To uninstall it, search for "msjava.dll" on your hard drive. Then run the command line regsvr32 -u <full path to msjava.dll>. You may have to run the command more than once if more than one copy of msjava.dll are on your machine. Then delete all copies of msjava.dll on your machine. Now if you run Jview from a command prompt, you should get an error message saying that the Java Virtual Machine could not be located. Now, if you need a Java VM, go to Sun's web site to download and install the JRE 1.4.

September 12, 2002

Today, I replaced an aging hard drive in one of my home PCs with a new drive. I used Norton Ghost to copy the contents of the old drive to the new one. It worked great and I now have another 15GB of free space to fill up. My old drive was starting to make a squeaking noise. The only other time I heard a hard drive make that noise, the drive failed. So I thought I would be pro-active this time and replace the drive before it failed.

September 11, 2002

This picture was taken in the Fall of 1998. We went up to NY to help get Tess's sister moved into NYU.

September 10, 2002

I have purposely been avoiding technical discussions here, but I just can’t help myself this time. Today, someone needed to send me a large file that kept bombing his email client. So I thought I would just install an ftp server on my Linux box and let him upload it instead. I went to RedHat’s web site, downloaded and installed the appropriate package, then found a HowTo that described how to setup a guest ftp account. It all worked great. It never ceases to amaze me how well Linux works. The software does what is intended and there is great documentation on web that explains how to do just about anything you need to do. It’s hard to believe it does so much and costs so little. The only unfortunate thing is that Linux’s Unix-centric design can present a barrier to entry for a lot of users.

September 4, 2002

Yet another study has shown the benefit of taking low doses of aspirin daily. I am only 36, but I have been taking an 81mg aspirin every day for the past 5 months. It seems like a easy way to lower your chances of heart disease later in life.

August 20, 2002

My son, Kyle started kindergarten today. To him it was no big deal. Just like any other day. Earlier in the week I met with his teacher at book day. I asked her if she has ever had a kindergarten student who could multiply. She said no. I said, “You do now.”

August 11, 2002

My sister Kristen recently complained that I did not ever say anything about her on my web site. So I would like to include a recent picture of her. She is currently an aspiring actress. She pays the bills by working as Vegas ‘greeter’. We are all very proud of her. Just kidding. Really, Kristen works in the Women’s Studies department at the University of Georgia. Her husband is a professor of Astronomy. Kristen has degrees in journalism and psychology from UGA. She has had a book and several articles and cartoons published.

August 1, 2002

We returned from Alaska. You can see some pictures from the trip here.

July 31, 2002

All good things come to an end. We spent the day packing up and preparing to leave. We bought some smoked salmon to take back home.

July 30, 2002

We spent the day in and around Denali National Park. The kids had fun playing along the bank of the Nenana River. We saw the dog sled demonstration at the park and marveled at the incredible scenery. We then drove back to Anchorage.

July 29, 2002

We drove to Denali National Park where we spent the night. On the way there, we stopped along the road to take some pictures and I found some wild blueberries.

July 28, 2002

Today we took a vacation from our vacation. We walked along the costal trail in Anchorage. The trail starts at the historic home of Oscar Anderson, one of the founders of Anchorage.

July 27, 2002

We went fishing at Ship Creek in Anchorage. We were trying to catch silver salmon, but I caught a nice trout instead. We were not there at the best time to fish, so I was extremely lucky to catch anything.

July 26, 2002

We started Friday at the The Alyeska Prince Hotel and Resort. There, we took a tram ride to the top of the mountain. We took pictures, and then walked down to a small creek. It was very cold on the mountain, so after walking we had some hot chocolate and coffee at the restaurant on the mountain. After eating we proceeded on Highway 1 to Portage Glacier. Unfortunately, we arrived just after the visitor’s center closed for the day, so we took some pictures and then continued on to the small fishing village of Whittier. Whittier has a permanent population of just 200-300 people, 75% of which all live in a single building that contains condos, restaurants and shops. To get to Whittier by car you have to go through the 2.5 mile long Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel that was build by the US Army during World War II and recently expanded to allow automobile traffic.

July 25, 2002

Today we went to the Alaska Zoo. It’s a small zoo that has foxes, a coyote, a seal, young polar and grizzly bears, a glacier bear, bald eagles, musk ox, reindeer, and tigers. After the zoo, we went to eat at the Glacier Brewhouse. As the name implies, they brew their own beer. I tried the Beam Stout, which is aged in used Jim Beam barrels and their raspberry wheat. The stout was very good, but I did not care for the raspberry wheat. I have never been a fan of wheat beers. After eating, we walked around in downtown Anchorage and bought some souvenirs.

July 24, 2002

On Wednesday, we went on a nature cruise that left from the port of Seward. Seward is about 130 miles from Anchorage. Seward is mostly a tourist town that hosts restaurants, cruise ships of all sizes, and charter fishing boats. The half-day nature cruise first stoped at Fox Island were a baked salmon dinner was served. After dinner, we were shown puffins, Steller sea lions, a sea otter, and a couple of bald eagles. Some people spotted some whales, but I was too busy taking care of my two sleepy kids to go up top to take a look. After the cruise we went to the pier where the daily catch from the charter fishing boats are cleaned and packaged. The size and great quantity of fish caught were amazing. Hundreds of pounds of Silver Salmon, Halibut, and Cod were brought in. On the way back from Seward to Anchorage, we stopped to take some pictures of a mother Dahl sheep and its lamb that were grazing on the cliffs next to the highway.

July 23, 2002

On our first day in Anchorage, we went to the Alaska Native heritage Center. The center features native dance and reproductions of traditional dwellings, art, and tools of the native Alaskans. I enjoyed the visit, but I thought the $20 admission fee was excessive considering what if offered. The center does not feel very authentic. Most of the objects at the center are reproductions, and the display areas are rather small. Most of the personnel at the center are very young and have little or no direct knowledge of their ancestors’ lifestyle. However one older woman at the center was very knowledgeable and entertaining. She was the star of the center, but was not treated as such. She manned her position at the center on equal terms as the high-school kids. The center would be much better if they employed more older native people. They should also feature more multimedia of older native people. As it is, the center seemed a little hollow to me.

July 22, 2002

We started our Alaskan adventure with a flight from Atlanta to Newark. We had a three-hour stop over there. We met some Samoan-Hawaiians who now live in Anchorage who were returning home from a trip to Hawaii. Apparently, many Hawaiians have moved to Anchorage in search of jobs. From Newark, we took a 7.5-hour flight to Anchorage. Tess’s cousin, Malou and her son, Albert picked us up from the airport. In summer, the days in Anchorage are 18 hours long. The kids wanted to play after being on airplanes for the past 10 hours, so they stayed out until 10pm, which was 2am by Atlanta time. The sun was still fairly bright when we went to bed at 11pm.

July 22, 2002

We are off to Alaska. We will be back on August 1st.

July 17, 2002

I just found Micheal Jackson's Beer Hunter web site. Looks like it has a lot of great information. In related news, I just sampled my Irish Stout. It's great - rich, creamy, and smooth.

July 11, 2002

Last night I bottled my second batch of beer. This batch is an Irish Stout. The second time around went much smoother than my first attempt. I used 32 once bottles this time. My beer will spending the next three weeks aging down in the basement. I recently bought Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion. It’s a great book for anyone wanting to learn more about the history of beer and how commercial brewers ply their trade. It’s full of high quality pictures and well-written text describing the various types of beer. I was able to pick it up at the Barnes & Nobel bargin rack for $5.

July 3, 2002

I have lived in my current home for about 7 years. During that time I have always had a hard time keeping the upstairs at a comfortable temperature in the summer. Every time I had an air-conditioning company at my house, I would ask them what the problem was. They would measure the temperature of the air coming out of the vents and tell me everything was working fine. I began to suspect I did not have enough insulation in the attic. But I kept thinking that couldn’t be the problem because this house was built in 1995. Of course they must have insulated it well. Well, it was the problem. I had Wilson Insulation increase my attic insulation to R-38, at it made a huge difference. Yesterday, we had a very hot day in Atlanta and the upstairs stayed a comfortable 75 degrees (Fahrenheit). The upstairs air conditioner used to stay on all day and the temperature upstairs would get up to 85 degrees on the hottest days. Now the air conditioner works intermittently and the temperature stays at exactly where I set it. I wish I had the insulation improved when we moved in. It would have saved me a few thousand dollars in electricity over the past seven years. It only cost $400 to insulate the attic. It will probably pay for itself in a single season.

July 1, 2002

I recently bought an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for the computer that hosts this site. I also have two other computers, a monitor, a DSL modem, a firewall/router, and a IP switch plugged into it. It’s an APC Pro 1100 that provides 1100 Volt-Amperes of power. It works great. Here in Atlanta, we have had severe thunderstorms the past two nights. The power went off several times during both storms and my web site and Internet connection stayed up with no problems. Although a good one is expensive (mine cost $300), it’s well worth it. I just needed something to keep my computers up a few minutes. That covers me for about 95% of the power outages we get. APC makes larger uninterruptible power supplies that can keep a computer running for hours.

June 12, 2002

Last weekend we all went to Savannah and Shellman's Bluff. We had a great time visiting all the Grandparents. Kyle did a great job as captain on Grampsie's boat. We also made a quick drive by at the rental house we own in Savannah. It was the first time Tess had seen it.

June 2, 2002

We saw Star Wars Episode II yesterday, and it was great. I think it's the best one yet.

May 6, 2002

Over the weekend, we camped at Stephan C. Foster Park in the Okefenokee swamp in South Georgia. We drove down on Saturday. We set up the tent, and then went for a walk in the park. Right away, we saw a fox walking across the street. Upon arriving at the office, we saw an alligator swimming in the lagoon where they keep the rental boats. We let the kids play in the play ground near the office for a while, before returning to the campground. After eating supper, we settled down to go to sleep. Within minutes, we heard something outside the tent. We pointed the flashlight and saw a raccoon trying to climb up the tree we had tied the trash bag to. The raccoon was scared away by our light. After he left, I went out and put the trash and all the food inside the car. Luckily, the car was parked right beside the campsite, so it was a short walk to the car. The next morning we saw the raccoon again. It walked through our campsite after returning from a night of foraging. The next day we walked to the small museum where they have some animal dislays and some historical information about the area. We then rented a small motorboat to tour the rivers near the park. We saw 30 or 40 small alligators and a large turtle. Kyle took a turn driving the boat. He did a great job. We spent a little over two hours on the water. After the boat ride, we went back to camp, ate, packed up and left for home. It was a great weekend trip. We all had a lot of fun. The insects were a little annoying, but going earlier in the year would probably have eliminated that problem. I will put some pictures from the trip on the web site as soon as I can.

April 10, 2002

As of a week ago, I own a rental property in Savannah. It's a small 3 bedroom 1.5 bath home with a fenced yard in the Paradise Park subdivision.

March 27, 2002

Last weekend, we celebrated Nicole's Third Birthday. Cinderella made an appearance and we had lots of fun. My beautiful wife did a wonderful job planning and executing the party. We are in the process of buying a rental property in Savannah. I have several friends that own rental properties and recommend it. After the ups and downs in the stock market, I am ready for a slow and steady return on investment.

January 27, 2002

I spent last week at the home office in San Francisco. I don't like travel, but if you have to travel, San Francisco is as good a place as any to go. On Friday morning, I ate at Mama's. It's one of the best places to eat breakfast in San Francisco.

January 3, 2002

Happy New Year! We are snowed in. We got about 4 inches of snow in the past 24 hours, and that's enough to shut down Atlanta. I work at home, so I can still work (darn). But Tess gets a day off. The kids will be playing in the snow and drinking hot chocolate. What could be better? We just missed a white Christmas by a week.