I had a lot of fun last night. At least, what I remember was great fun. I know I shared chocolate and Indian food with people, drank vodka (thanks William & Sarah!), and had a lot of fun. I hope I didn't offend anyone, my memory is a bit hazy. I haven't drunk that much in a while, nor have I had a raging hangover like this in a while.
Ah well, until next year!
All I can really say here is "what the hell?" I don't know if this is the result of an Army press person being too used to writing Iraq stories, or if the Army really is viewing this as an insurgency, but either way I'm flabberghasted that it got the editorial green light. Here is the primary source:
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077495.php
Referring to domestic lawlessness as an insurgency generally requires that:
a) The insurgents seek to overthrow some or all of the government, and
b) The insurgents are well enough armed and equipped not to be classified as rioters.
Insane.
It's 7:33pm on a holiday Friday, and I'm still working. Why? Because an Intel motherboard BIOS upgrade failed. Simply figuring out what's wrong is quite a challenge - Intel helpfully supply four 2-colour LEDs. Each can be red, green, or off. These represent a bytecode (the 80 POST code), wherein red LEDs represent the high nibble, and green represents the low nibble. A red and a green next to each other represents a state known as amber. The result is a puzzle, wherein you try to figure out WHY Intel even bother to invent a third colour on a 2-colour LED.... and eventually you get a hex code that tells you where things didn't work.
If you read a different document, it actually tells you how to fix it - on a page that isn't in the document. Arrrrghhhh.
I figured out that you can use System.Console.SetOut() to redirect console output to a text file. That really helped out: a client's ASP.NET application insisted on sending errors to the console, even though in a web console there isn't one.
We pitched a $12k website to a client yesterday, and they came back today asking if $18k would be enough to make it better. Yay!
I'm also utterly disgusted by the looters in New Orleans. Looting for food, water, and even clothes I can understand, and it's inevitable that opportunists will grab everything potentially of value. Shooting at rescue workers, however, is inexcusable. Such actions justify the policy in many cities of authorizing troops to fire on looters and gangs, and the imposition of heavy curfew laws while rescue work/cleanup begins. It looks like Army and National Guard units will need to impose such restrictions on the ground, if any headway is to be made in the race against dehydration and disease.
