To Be Frank …

Only about half an hour before the limo arrives to bring me to the Airport, and from there to Sinéad )

Looking outside … the fog was so thick this morning that I couldn’t even see across the street .. seriously ! It’s lifting a little now … which is good … seems there were delays of almost 3 hours in JFK earlier …

Spent yesterday completely bored … it was Thanksgiving, and well, that means everything shuts down !

Saw “Just in” pics of Pres. Bush doing his thing in Iraq yesterday … I have to admire the political and moral boosting masterstroke it was. The speech he made was quite short and to-the-point, and the manner in which he arrived, and his look – while probably well scripted – was absolutely brilliant. Bravo!
(Now *there’s* a comment I never thought I’d be making !)

I have to agree with one of the commentators who said that [Bush's detractors] “… would do well to note that this is a man you underestimate at your own peril.” I have to agree … in fact I’d go as far as to say that he’s not half as green as he’s cabbage looking !

Well, after about 18 months of missing each other in random places across the planet I finally met up with Jim Gleason (the president of the NYLUG) at a meet last night.
I have to say they’re a reasonably well organised bunch, and definately very friendly. After a great talk by Todd Lewis about Hank (an IDS he wrote which is in need of users and / or love) we adjourned to a local TGI Friday’s for the NYLUG traditional Standtisch.
Had a great conversation with Todd’s wife (I’m sorry I can’t remember your name !) of only about two months … so Congratulations guys ! It’s really affirming to see a young couple that are so obviously right for each other !
I’ve also got to say thanks to Aaron … who gave me a lift back to the hotel – despite it being a very poor night for driving, and the tunnel being blocked, and Jersey City being in almost the opposite direction. Thank you !

New York does seem to be a friendly city – certainly the NYLUG are doing their bit to make people feel welcome.

You wait ages for a bus then three come along together !

Only got the phone line last week … and it’s already been pre-qualified for DSL … which means that I should have real bandwidth in time for Christmas … Yippee … working from home is now a possibility !!

Well, Jersey City actually – but who’s counting !

Been here since Tuesday evening local time … it’s different, the hotel is mundane enough, but the restaurant food is good. Trying to figure out what to do and where to go … the area around here is a little run down … looks like there’s a lot of urban renewal going on at the moment though – Especially in the last two years.
Got my new work ID yesterday from the head-offices in the World Financial Centre. An interesting place the WFC … great view out onto “Ground Zero” from the first floor. Somehow that wasn’t as morbid as I’d thought it would be.

Missing Sinéad like mad though – she didn’t get to come out (due to financial constraints on our side). Had a very quiet birthday yesterday … the guys in the office did find out – but too late to do much (there was a release going out – so this weekend is probably a bad time to do stuff like that anyway.

I should really do some sight-seeing today … if I can figure out where the ferry goes from (it changes at the weekend … which is annoying, as I haven’t really had time to get my bearings.

Must get food, since It’s nearly 2pm, and I’m getting hungry !

Got warned on Friday that I’d probably be sent to New York for a few weeks soonish … turns out it’s even sooner than I’d thought – due to time constraints – they want me out there by Wednesday ! – A whole two days notice … What fun

A quote on /. about LT’s abilities in the wake of the attempt to enter a backdoor in the Linux Kernel’s BitKeeper repository.

“Linus isn’t just a good C programmer. After half a decade of watching him catch stuff like this in just his public LKML messages, I’m convinced he would have seen this if he were reading braille hardcopy of it from across the room while drunk.”

It is really starting to annoy me now … over six weeks … in the nations capital, and the incumbant telco can’t supply a damned phone line. First there was a note on the order stating Nil-Cable …. which I’d believe except that the nice young lady on 1901 (the sales line) confirmed that 7 of my neighbours already had a phone service.
Today we notice that there’s a voltage on the line … you can hear the static when you make / break the contact (or tap the cradle) … but there’s absolutely no tone on it. At least they’re not saying “nil-cable” any more .. rather something like … “we can’t contact the engineer on site, so can’t give you a timeframe” …

You’ve really got to wonder …

In the meantime updates here will be infrequent, as I’ll be posting from the in-laws DSL …

Well, it had to happen … we noticed a slight drip of water coming from behind the boiler the other day … turns out that the eejits who’d hung it on the walls put the mounting screws through the pipe that was feeding it! … I ask ya .. they put the pipe in a few weeks earlier … how hard could it be to get something like that right ?

Either way – the plumber was in and sorted it … hope they send round a guy to patch the corner where he dug out the plaster !