Yearly Archive: 2012

I have spent the bulk of today working on a layout project, where I’m fiddling with making things line up to the thousandth (yes, thousandth) of an inch, and going cross-eyed, and deciding if a leading of 28.2 or 28.3 works better in this situation, and exporting to PDF to make sure that things look the way I think things look, and generally not coming up for air for several hours.

And I’ve been loving every minute of it.

This just showed up in my email.

VDOT reports that drivers should expect intermittent lane closures at the intersection of Route 29 and Gallows Road in Merrifield. The work is expected to continue through the evening rush hour. Crews are performing emergency work on underground phone lines at the intersection.

You might want to plan accordingly.

Announcement from Alert Montgomery:

Description: The Virginia Department of Transportation will close multiple lanes of I-66 west at the Capital Beltway this weekend from 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24, through 5 a.m. Monday, Aug. 27. Crews will be performing demolition, excavation, paving and roadway markings for the 495 Express Lanes Project.

Motorists can expect 30 minute delays and are strongly urged to use an alternate route during the weekend construction.

For full details, including the four phases of work, visit: http://www.vamegaprojects.com/news/current-alerts/weekend-closures-on-i-66-west-at-i-495-aug-24-27/

All closures are weather permitting.

Because, you know, the last weekend before Labor Day is sure to be a slow traffic day. Yep.

Oh, this looks entertaining. SteamDrunks: 101 Steampunk Cocktails and Mixed Drinks is currently available for free on Amazon. As always, I’m unsure as to how long this price will be valid, so please look carefully before purchasing. (And, again as always, you can read Kindle ebooks on any number of devices, including your  Windows / OSX systems, or iOS and Android phones / tables / gadgets.)

From the description:

SteamDrunks: 101 Steampunk Cocktails and Mixed Drinks gently escorts you through the treacherous waters of 19th century mixology.

You’ll find authentic Victorian punch recipes that could be confused for farmer’s cheese, tea recipes which will knock you out rather than wake you up, and downright chewable eggy cream curdles.

If nothing else, it looks like it will be an entertaining read.

Another find from Pixel of Ink.

I’m not sure how long this sale will be going on, but I saw it this morning, and thought I’d share. I’ve often seen The Pragmatic Programmer paired with The Mythical Man-Month as must reads for new programmers. It’s normally $50 in print, and $40 on the Kindle, but is currently available for $2.99. Quite the bargain.

This meri is medicated. Loopiness may ensue. That is all.

Thanks to everyone who provided input (<Johnny5>INPUT!</Johnny5>) to my question yesterday about how one pronounces the final word when expanding the TCP/IP-centric initialism ‘TTL’. The results were, as expected, unanimous, and in favor of a short i, as in the first syllable of the word ‘livid’ and not as in the second syllable of the word ‘alive.’

While I knew this, there were a few things that caused me to doubt myself.

• I’m often incorrect.
• The author in question, Robert J. Sawyer, is a pretty net-savvy guy.
• The mispronunciation persisted through all three of the books in the trilogy in question (the WWW: (Wake|Watch|Wonder) series. I would have thought that, after the first book, someone would have waved their arms and corrected the narrators (multiple) as to the proper pronunciation of the word. But, it seems that either didn’t happen, or an executive decision was made to keep on keepin’ on with the standing error.

Anyway, I thank you all for confirming that I’m not completely off my rocker. It’s always good to have some external validation of that.

I’m listening to an audiobook which has a lot to do with the Internets. It’s a pretty good book, and part of a pretty good series, but there is one consistent mispronunciation that’s driving me nuts. However, upon further reflection, I realized that it’s remotely possible that I’ve been saying the phrase incorrectly all these years. I’m fairly certain that, if I am, I’m far from alone. But, it’s always good to check these things. That’s where you come in.

The mispronunciation in question comes about when the acronym TTL is expanded and the component words are said individually. Do you say the last word as:

• the last syllable in the word ‘alive’, or
• the first syllable in the word ‘livid’

Like I said, I’m pretty sure I know which way this is going to go, because the term just doesn’t make sense to me the other way. But I never underestimate the ability of the world to surprise me.

While I was last in Massachusetts, I made a sock. (See below.) It is a pretty cool sock, but sadly, is only one sock. In order for it to be truly useful, there needs to be a second sock. Based upon my adventures thus far, that may be a long time coming.

(more…)

Nothing to see here. Move along.

In theory, this should be automatically posted to my LiveJournal account, but not my Facebook account. We’ll see how that works out, in reality.