Monthly Archives: October 2004

Dash or underscore

I just spent 2 hours helping a co-worker resolve a database connectivity problem. The software we were trying to install (our own product, as it happens) kept telling us it was having a problem connecting to the SQL server database.

We tried to install the software three times … each time it failed with same error.

Finally I looked at the database name we were trying to use … the my co-worker was telling me to use was ‘qa-db3278’ … but the database he created was ‘qa_db3278’.

Well of course it couldn’t create the tables … the database we were telling it to create them in didn’t exist.

Oh well 🙂

Google to unveil desktop search

Google to unveil desktop search | CNET News.com

[Google] has created Google Desktop Search, a thin-client application that lets people retrieve e-mail, Microsoft Office documents, AOL chat logs and a history of Web pages previously viewed, all via a Web browser.

This sounds kind of cool. I’ll be interested to see what they do with it.

A while ago Alta-vista (I think) created something similar … but it never took off.

Alarm systems and passwords

I got a call yesterday (actually, multiple times yesterday) from our alarm company.

Apparently one of the devices in our system was reporting a problem.

The guy calls, identifies himself as being with the security company, informs me that one of the devices in my alarm system is reporting a problem … and then asks me for my password.

Excuse me? You call me and ask for my password? Sorry dude… that violates rule number one of security procedures: NEVER GIVE YOUR PASSWORD OUT. Especially when you are approached for it.

I have no way of being certian that this person is actually with the security company … how do I know that he’s not some guy phishing for my password … so that he can break into my house in a week, set off the alarm … and call the security company say it’s a false alarm and give the correct password.

So I tell the guy that I won’t give him my password … explain why, thank him for calling, and then tell him that I will call the central station to check on what the problem was.

I start to call the central station … and then my cell phone rings. I hang up on the central station and answer the cell phone. It’s the same guy.

I explain again that I won’t give him my password … and ask to speak to his supervisor.

I talk the supervisor for a while … explaining why this procedure of theirs is so terribly wrong. He agrees, and promises to forward my comments to managment.
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Why did the chicken cross the road?

GEORGE W BUSH

We don’t really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL

Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

HANS BLIX

We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY

Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it!

RALPH NADER

The chicken’s habitat on the other side of the road had been polluted by unchecked industrial greed. The chicken did not reach the unspoiled habitat on the other side of the road because it was crushed by the wheels of a gas-guzzling SUV.

DAN RATHER

I have documents proving the chicken didn’t cross the road and the current
administration is at fault, and I am 100% satisfied that these are authentic
documents.

PAT BUCHANAN

To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

RUSH LIMBAUGH

I don’t know why the chicken crossed the road, but I’ll bet it was getting a government grant to cross the road, and I’ll bet that somebody out there is already forming a support group to help chickens with crossing-the-road syndrome. Can you believe this?!? How much more of this can real Americans take? Chickens crossing the road paid for by their tax dollars. And when I say tax dollars, I’m talking about your money, money the government took from you to build a road for chickens to cross.

MARTHA STEWART

No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer’s Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS

Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I’ve not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

To die in the rain. Alone.
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Ha! They made a pun!

On the radio, I mostly listen to Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ 91.5fm).

During the transitions from one segment to another, they often make a reference to their underwriters and contributors.

A while ago I noticed that they are listing Navy Pier as one of their contributors. They are specifically using the phrase “Chicago Public Radio is supported by Navy Pier”.

This, of course, has double meaning … because Chicago Public Radio is located on Navy Pier. So, they are indeed Supported by Navy Pier as well as supported by Navy Pier.

Without Navy Pier being there … they would fall into the lake 🙂