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Onion Grass: The Harbinger of Mowing Season
Welp, the onion grass has started coming up in my front yard. That means that it won’t be too long before I have to mow. I’ve learned after a few years on my property that onion grass pops up in late winter/early spring, mostly goes away during prime growing season, then pops up again in…
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$#%!!? FAR
It’s Faculty Annual Report (FAR) season again. Last year, FAR season was not fun. The FAR mysteriously “lost” a bunch of faculty reports (my theory was that it never saved them in the first place, but I digress), and many unfun hijinks ensued. The author of FAR still works here, but he’s been sucked into…
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Gripe du Jour: Palm eReader
I think I’ve figured out why eBooks are not more popular. I’ve recently warmed up to the concept of reading books on my PDA. It’s actually a much more pleasant experience than I expected. The PDA came with a free eBook reader, and the books I’m reading are in the public domain, so my total…
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Demystifying your U of M Paycheck
Until recently, there’s been something I’ve always wondered about the paycheck I get from UMBC. We’re paid biweekly, which translates to 26 paychecks per year. Now, the University gives me a certain dollar amount as my annual salary. But if I add up the gross pay from each of those 26 paychecks, it always comes…
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Student IDs, and making the portal work for users who don’t have them
First: The facts of life. UMBC has the concept of a “student ID number.” This number is used in SIS as the primary key for almost every table. All students have these IDs, as do faculty members who teach courses, etc. uPortal itself does not use or require this number to do its work. The…
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Digitizing our music library
Over the past year or so I’ve been slowly converting all of our CDs to MP3 format and putting them on the computer. Various things are motivating this project: Convenient access to music at work, where I listen to the most music, and on my Palm, which I take to the gym and use as…
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Life with a tempermental snowblower
Well, we finally got some real snow here on the east coast, so that meant some rare action for the snowblower. This is our fourth winter with the snowblower, and it’s getting more and more tempermental with each passing year. It’s getting harder and harder to start, and it’s developed this habit of quitting on…
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VNC over ssh
Just for laughs today, I decided to try setting up an SSH tunnel to connect to my home VNC desktop from work. To my surprise, it was as simple as: ssh homedsl -L 5901:localhost:5901 vncviewer localhost:5901 To my even bigger surprise, it works pretty well. The performance is good enough that I can do “real…
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Upgrading the security system
Four years ago, I installed a full-perimeter hardwired security system in our house. This probably ranks as the single largest DIY project I’ve ever undertaken. All told, it took me about four months, working alone, and splitting the time with my day job as well as household chores and other projects. Would I do it…
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3-month Palm Review
I’ve had my Palm Tungsten E2 for about 3 months now. The verdict so far: I’m getting my money’s worth. I’m using it more, and in more ways, than I did my old Palm m105 a few years back. First though, let’s dispense with the bad stuff. The only thing I’m disappointed with is the…