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Browse NFPA codes online
I just found out that The National Fire Protection Association has a method you can use to browse all of its publications online. This includes the National Electrical Code and its associated offshoots. This is really nice, because printed versions of the NEC (NFPA 70) sell for upwards of $60, and then you still need…
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Early end to swim season?
Several days of persistent cloudy, cool and rainy weather have conspired to drop the pool temperature to a nice, chilly 76 degrees. And, the forecast for the next week or so doesn’t look too promising. So it looks like we may be in for our earliest end to the swim season since we moved into…
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Tweaked cash-flow spreadsheet format
For over 2 years now, I’ve been using spreadsheets to track our month-to-month household cash flow. In general, it’s been a huge success. It helps immensely with short- and intermediate-term financial planning. It lets us know when we’re running short on cash and need to be budget-conscious, and it allows us to earmark money ahead…
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Kids are back
Just got back from my first outdoor run in what seems like forever, so I’m sure I’ll be nice and sore tomorrow. I’ve really fallen off with the biking (and exercising in general) recently, and I do hope to ride in several more times this year, but this is definitely the time of year when…
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More pool fun
The inevitable happened yesterday.. I accidentally ran the vac booster pump for an hour or so with the intake plumbing shut off. Fortunately, it looks like it survived.. thermal cutoff switches are your buddy. Several years ago, a similar mishap happened to the main circulation pump, and it’s still alive and kicking. The damage this…
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Polyurethane caulk + no gloves = big mess
At long last, I got the planetary alignment needed to caulk the pool deck joints, so I did it this morning. First lesson learned: I need to wear disposable gloves when doing this. Because as bad as I thought silicone caulk stuck to my hands, polyurethane caulk is 10 times worse. I wouldn’t be surprised…
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3 cheers for backward compatibility
Well, we finally upgraded our calendar server last night, from old-and-crusty Steltor CorporateTime to its successor, new-and-shiny Oracle Collaboration Suite. And, kudos to Oracle, as it looks like they’ve kept it backwards-compatible with the old CorporateTime API. That is, my homegrown OracleCalendar-to-iCalendar exporter thingy is still working. That’s nice, because I’ve come to depend on…
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Summer’s almost over
Well, here it is late summer again. And I must say — I’m ready for fall. If you’d have told me 20 years ago that I’d be writing that now, I’d have looked at you like you were crazy. But it’s true.. I’m just not crazy about summer these days. It’s not really the heat…
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Cisco VPN client for Linux
Well.. after quite a bit of fiddling (what else is new) I managed to get Cisco’s VPN Client working on my Linux box. OIT provides a download for this, but it’s just a tar file of the client software.. no docs or any other info. Details: I run Debian, and most of my Linux boxes…
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Parking Permits and EasiPipe hacking
I bit the bullet today and bought a UMBC Parking Permit. Now, for someone who works at UMBC, this may not seem too remarkable. But, this is the first time I’ve had a parking permit in about 4 years. I’ve always had philosophical issues with the University charging its employees for parking, but that’s kinda…