XKCD: Sys Admins

2010-02-23 00:00:00 -0500

This immediately reminded my of several of my sysadmin-type friends, they know who they are..
-- http://xkcd.com/705/

A Bird Hat

2010-02-21 00:00:00 -0500

Emma made this hat for her stuffed animal, a barn swallow.
She has made many clever things with paper and tape - including a house for the same bird, diapers for her other dolls, a mailbox, etc.

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Rochester's Abandoned Subway

2010-02-20 00:00:00 -0500

Abby and her geocaching friends decided to find a geocache in the abandoned Rochester subway. Our numbers dwindled as people discovered the no trespassing signs. Honestly, what did they expect.. and why did they bring their children? It was cold. We did not get arrested, mugged or murdered, thank goodness. We also failed to find the cache because construction inside the tunnel had put up large chain link fences from floor to ceiling. They will likely be filling in the subway with cement or something: http://www.broadstreetcorridor.com/

Comp Sci 101 for M

2010-02-18 00:00:00 -0500

Emma, my four year-old, is aware of the Mac "Activity Monitor" utility.  Mine is set to display RAM usage as pie chart in the dock.  Whenever she comes to "bother me" at the computer she usually comments on how much green I have.  She also knows less green means Webkinz starts up slower.  She wanted to know why.  I explained: 
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I think she got it.  I happened to have a some spare hard drives lying around so she could look at and touch one.  I also pointed out the clicking noise she was hearing was the hard drive.  Then I slid off my Mac Pro's cover and showed her where they were in the computer...  I think she kinda got it - computers have to read programs (like Webkinz) into memory from disk.  Disk is slow, RAM is fast.  :)

She's starting to read a little and can do basic addition and subtraction.  In a few months when she is better, I think I will introduce her to Turtle Logo.  Too early?

Trimester

2010-02-09 00:00:00 -0500