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According to Chris Pratley MS Word has “property bags” so “reveal codes” won’t work. That is when you add bold-italic to a bunch of words in several places in a document that bold-italic property gets saved in one “bag.” Then, presumably each bunch of words points to this property “bag.” This probably explains why I have always been so annoyed with Word: especially for outlines, section, figure and table numbering. You might change one entry and, all of sudden, all the numbering changes, or styles, or fonts, or… Very aggravating. If I can, I use L^AT_EX, usually via MikTeX. The PDF output is very nicely laid out. The section numbering nor the styles spontaneously change. And the text “source” files are relatively small.

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A pompous preacher was seated next to a Newfie on a flight to Toronto. After the plane was airborne, drink orders were taken. The Newfie asked for a whiskey and soda, which was brought The flight attendant then asked the minister if he would like a drink. He replied in disgust, “I’d rather be savagely raped by a dozen brazen whores than let liquor touch my lips.”

The Newfie then handed his drink back to the attendant and said, “I didn’t know we had a choice.”

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I guess Toronto is cutting back its infrastructure repair program. Today I witnessed a pothole repair at the bottom of the Kipling Avenue overpass, southbound side, just north of Olivewood [map]. The repair process was:

• Fill the pothole with asphalt.
• Drive away.

No tamping, no rolling, nothing!

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I missed having a regular expression function for Excel™ until I found a VBA script on Internet. It uses the so-called RegExp object. I have lightly edited the function and called it “s” in honour of Perl's s regexp operator and because Microsoft seems to have borrowed Perl’s RE syntax. To use it, you open the VB editor in Excel, create a new module and copy the following code. S will now be available to use in formulas, for example, =s(A1,"(\d+)","number$1"). If A1 contains "a box of 2300 toys" then the formula’s result will be "a box of number2300 toys" without the bold, of course. I have used s to add columns to large csv files where I need some extra columns based on permutations and substitutions of text in other columns. This can be very tedious and error prone without regular expressions.

Excel s Function

Function s(orig_text As String, _
           match_pat As String, _
           replace_pat As String, _
           Optional instance As Variant) As Variant
  Dim regex As Object, matches As Object, m As Object
  
  Set regex = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
  regex.Pattern = match_pat
  regex.Global = True
  
  If (IsMissing(instance)) Then
    s = regex.Replace(orig_text, replace_pat)
  ElseIf instance > 0 Then
    Set matches = regex.Execute(orig_text)
    If instance > matches.Count Then
      s = orig_text  'matchnum out of bounds - do nothing
    Else
      Set m = matches.Item(instance - 1)
      s = Left(orig_text, m.FirstIndex) & _
        regex.Replace(m.Value, replace_pat) & _
        Right(orig_text, Len(orig_text) - m.FirstIndex - m.Length)
    End If
  Else
    s = CVErr(xlErrValue)  'invalid: instance <= 0
  End If
End Function

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I’m getting a new gateway/router FreeBSD box ready to take place of the one with the flaky hard disk. I built a new kernel with firewall, natting and tweaked the various /etc files based on the old box’s settings. After rebooting I couldn’t get it to connect to the network even though the box got it’s initial IP address via DHCP. I fiddled with various settings in rc.conf and manually did various combinations of ifconfig and route but still there was “no route to host.” Finally I realized I had included the directive, options IPFILTER_DEFAULT_BLOCK in the kernel. This worked too well. I commented this out and used options IPFIREWALL_DEFAULT_TO_ACCEPT instead. Come to think of it, IPFILTER and IPFIREWALL might be prefixes to different sets of programs, namely ipfw and ipfilter. Well, it’s been a rainy and cool (4 or 5°C) day so that indoor activities were called for anyway.

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Today’s riser report comes from the very back of the stage. I really can’t say how we sounded out in the audience because of our position on the stage of the former Midland Collegiate auditorium, behind the orchestra. The choir’s performance was lot like a real opera as the chorus was costumed in tuxedos or black outfits (no makeup though—at least on this writer) and we waited around for soloist arias before going on stage. Nevertheless, it was a paid gig for the choir and we certainly need the funds to pay off a loan. The four young soloists, music students at U of T and elsewhere, sang well, though again, we were poorly placed for listening to the front of stage voices. The choir was, basically, necessary “filler” and “atmosphere” for the “mania.”

As our director is off at Banff, Imre acted as our music “liason” with the maestro of the Scarborough Phil and Kieran MacMillan as our “business” person. I had a chat with Kieran during one of our long breaks and discovered he’s a multi-talented individual: composer, singer, pianist, software developer, Filemaker guru and trainer. His first passion is composing so he tries to arrange his business consulting activites so as to pay the bills and leave enough left over to cover some months “in seclusion” every once in a while for composition.

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It’s that time of the year when I can spend an hour or two in the early evening weeding the lawn and the gardens. The dandelions don’t yet have their yellow beacons but their rosettes of indented leaves are easy to recognize.

Right now the lawn is carpeted in blooming violets. I wonder if it drives my neighbour crazy to see all those violets growing wild in my grass?

The side yard looks great this year with crocuses and “species,” tiny daffodils. It was worth the bother of planting them in the hard clay soil last fall.

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The latest spam seems to be random character string groups in the body and spaces in the Subject. The only exception, of course, is the URL, the payload so to speak. It’s sad that this dreck gets sent around. The only reason we have to have 3 or 4 GHz machines is so that all those idle cycles can be used in spam prevention analysis.

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My son moved back home this evening. I unloaded my wife’s car of his residence belongings which included a large cardboard box that was oozing 'poo. Shampoo, Head and Shoulders™ I believe! A least it smells better than poo but in some ways it was just as messy. I had to unload the box since I could see the printer-scanner we bought him was in there. Fortunately only the plastic bottom got a little 'pooey. I had to shampoo and rinse one end of the USB cable, though. We are glad to see him back at home—perhaps a little older and wiser in the ways of the world and women.

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I have been a do-it-yourselfer for a long time but I have been convinced to call the roofers in to replace our “just on the verge of leaking” roof. I have done roofing before; however, it was a bungalow and we were adding a second layer of shingles. I would like to have the old shingles removed and disposed of. The codes have changed so there is additional work required in applying metal edging and roll roofing along the eaves. I would have to rent or buy a pneumatic nail gun and compressor or I would be up there several days. Plus, I live in a two storey house—a much longer distance to fall or worry about my boys doing the same if I hired them. All told, there’s a lot of logistics involved and maybe (just maybe) it’s worth it to hire someone else to do it, to get the roofing job done promptly and to clean up and dispose of the old shingles.

Now I am venturing into the uncharted territory of gathering recommendations and quotes.

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It poured rain this morning. So hard did it pour it leaked under the siding and trickled in the top of one window via the siding. At least I noticed the water and mopped it up. I’ll definitely have to start calling roofers for estimates tomorrow.

My afternoon run of about 11km was rather slower by because of the wet trails and the puddle jumping. Running on the grass is slower, too. My knees and feet prefer running on grass.

I decided not to enter the Mississauga (Half-)Marathon. There’s too much to be done on the weekends: choir takes up half of Saturday already until the end of May. I figure that by the time I get driven there, register, run, get picked up at the other end, etc. that will be more than another half day gone. This will be another thing to put on the list of things I would like to do once I (semi-)retire in a few years hence.

Saturday I was busy restoring hubbo.com so I just ran on the treadmill. Since I had found the heart monitor I tried the “aerobic” “heart-rate controlled” 30 minute work out. The top speed was only 6.8 km/h; however the machine set the slope at 10% for most of it. I seemed to have sweat as much and burned as many calories according to the machine than the time I ran an average of 10 km/h over 30 minutes at a 2% slope.

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Bad byte bits on the old 200 MHz gateway/server hard disk hit the swap file. In Windows, it’s the blue screen; however, in Unix it’s the more prosaic kernel panic. Fortunately the data bytes are good so I have managed to transfer the blog contents to (one of ?) my son’s web server(s). I’ve been rather busy in the last few days and evenings so I haven’t been able to switch the sites as soon as I’d like. Enjoy … again.

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On Friday, a crew of three (“producer,” cameraman and “sound guy”) came to film my wife and I discuss our thoughts on being new “empty-nesters.” Apparently this will be part of a planet parent TV episode in the fall. I’m sure I can wait. I’m not sure how erudite and interesting we were; however, it was an interesting to be “stars” for a little while. The producer asked us questions based on a couple of phone conversations I had with the show’s “director.” After each question, we answered and discussed the question while the cameraman filmed us about four feet away and the “sound guy” dangled a mike on a boom. This part was pretty straight forward, though unrehearsed by us.

Basically we talked about what life was like before kids, during and “after” kids. We also briefly went into our reactions regarding our younger one coming home again to continue his post-secondary education locally. Answers to these questions have been the subject of entries in my “Aglet.” A comment on my blog asked if I was interested in discussing some of these topics “on TV.”

Then the producer wanted some “atmosphere” and “background.” The cameraman filmed our wedding picture (gee, we look so young) and the producer took a couple of photos of our boys to scan.

Next we did some “normal,” “together” activities. I ground some coffee and poured it in the coffee maker. Talk about being self-conscious. You think to one’s self, “how dorky is this going to look, all those little habits one does?” Julie sliced a banana into a couple of bowls. Then we sat and “talked” while we drank coffee and ate sliced bananas. Pretty banal stuff.

Next we did a “together” activity. Julie sat on the couch, knitted and watched TV while I sat at desk in the same room in front of a computer looking at my older son’s website (it couldn’t anything commercial don’t you know). Oh yes, I had to move the painting hanging on the wall behind the monitor—even though we bought it some 23 years ago and we have no idea who the artist was (“Mike M” is the signature). A painting done by mother-in-law was “safe” to hang in its place. At one point Julie made an off-hand comment about an actor on the TV. Unfortunately she then had to repeat that comment several times while they took different camera shots of us “interacting.” This included the cameraman going out on the porch and shooting a “wide angle” shot through the window. My “conversation” was to make some comment about what I was reading on the website.

The crew was quite paranoid about commercial logos and wall decorations. Fortunately, all the wall hangings in view of the camera were my wife’s quilts. And, as I said, I substituted one painting. In the kitchen we had to move several “branded” items out of the way. I had to open the bag of coffee beans carefully displaying just the side without the brand name on it.

It was an interesting evening. I look forward (somewhat ;-) to seeing what got by the video editor(s) in the fall.

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Today I judged eight grade 7-8 science fair displays and heard the students' presentations. Well done by all those students for the most part. Nominally I was judging “in French” though I could can read their French signs very well I didn’t think I could ask intelligent questions of them in that language. I brought along a French-Canadian retired former colleague to do that.

On a couple of projects I commented:

Strengths:

Lots of information!

Recommendations:

Too much information!

Next year I’ll have to plan to get there earlier as I didn’t have enough time to review all the displays sans étudiants.

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As I mentioned, my wife and I took part in a wine tasting evening at a (French speaking) teacher colleague’s apartment. We were the only not-able-to-talk-a-lot-of-French Anglophones there—that was the French immersion part. I followed the conversations for most of the evening though it took a lot of “active listening.” I never realized, until last night, how much of listening is usually a background task in your mother tongue.

In another life, our hostess was either a wine buyer, taster, whatever in France I guess. So I learned a whole lot of French vocabulary that I’ll probably forget just as quickly having do with seeing, smelling and tasting wine. We “experienced” four French vintages. I only remember the name of the most expensive and tastiest wine: Chateau neuf du pape. There was one variety I didn’t care for. Obviously most of the group thought the same as the second bottle (the hostess bought two of each, one to taste and the other to drink with our meal) sat unconsumed until nearly the end of evening.

What I learned is that, although I can’t describe the sight, smell and taste of the wine in French very well, let alone in English, at least my preferences coincide with what the experts say is a good vintage.

It seems all of my wife’s French colleagues are from France. I even detected a bit of snobbery about French-Canadians in the conversations. They probably assumed I didn’t know what they were talking about. Hah! I only tuned out the conversations at the end when it became teacher “shop talk” and gossip. Not something that would have interested me in English either.

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We celebrated Easter supper with my wife’s family chez my closest (as in distance) sister-in-law’s place on Saturday evening this year. We all ate too much: none of us were coming from other family dinner parties. I just had to have a bit of everything including ham, turkey, two kinds of petahai (perogies), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with pecans, carrots, brussel spouts, salad, gravy and at least five different desserts. As usual I found out what the other brothers-in-law were up to over a few beers and glasses of wine.

Because of the re-scheduled Easter dinner, my wife and I can attend a wine-tasting party tonight with some of her french school colleagues. I presume the lingua franca will be Français so I will probably be rather (more?) quiet than usual until the wine loosens my tongue.

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resistentialism

(ri-zis-TEN-shul-iz-um) noun

The theory that inanimate objects demonstrate hostile behavior against us. Now I don’t have to use the phrase “the perversity of inanimate objects.”

petrichor

(PET-ri-kuhr) noun

The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell. I wonder what they call that “earthwormy” smell after a hard rain. If I had to guess at this word’s meaning I would probably have said it has something to do with fossilized pus deposits.

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• I’m a “pint” and some test tubes poorer of blood this evening.
• The Leaf - Sens game was on the TV at the blood donor clinic but I haven’t been following hockey all season—why should I start now?
• Fun and games: management wants a “whiteboard” on the Intranet. Time to install a Wiki! Since we have IIS, SQL server, Cold Fusion and ASP “technologies” available I’ll look into software that uses those first.
• Management also wants an FAQ. I can think of some answers to contribute like: How to set up a meeting notice in Outlook so people don’t send 20 emails trying to arrange a meeting. How to set up a personal address book in Outlook. How to use Excel’s data filter tool. How to reduce image sizes. And so on.

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I found out that Mississauga (or at least some sponsors) is hosting its first annual marathon on May 16, 2004. I run for the fun(!) of it mostly; however, since this is a local event I am considering the half-marathon. At 21.1k this is about double my longer distance runs on the weekend. Perhaps I’ll try increasing this distance over the next couple of weeks and then make a definite decision.

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According to this article, the recent decline in the U.S. dollar against other currencies means that Mr. Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad, is now US $6 billion richer than Bill Gates. I calculate that my last year’s before tax salary is about 0.00015% of Ingvar’s net worth. Put another way: my salary is just 1 hour and 18 minutes of Mr. Ikea’s year.

Oops! I converted the %. The comparison should be my salary to his net worth is 48 seconds to his year.

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Though I can sight read French, German, and “Church” Latin (and English ) “at speed”, I can’t say the same for Italian. We are learning some opera choruses for our upcoming concert with the SPO. To complicate matters, Italian librettists and composers can sometimes put three and four syllables on one note. My other “handicap” is that the first basses are also singing second tenor in some spots so that there’s a little mental “jump” required each time when switching from bass to treble clef and back.

Cricket, our golden retriever “grand-puppy,” came to visit while its owners were away at a party this weekend. I guess it would be more work if we were looking after a one-year old child but there still seems to a lot of time spent with “walkies,” playing and making sure she’s chewing her own toys.

Last night, my in-laws and ourselves watched a CBC Radio One taping of Madly Off in All Directions at the Mississauga Living Arts Centre. The comedy sketches ranged from OK to excellent, however, the musical parts have a “country” flavour—not usually something I go for. In fact when listening to the show, I switch the radio station at the country music point of the show. The only country act I enjoyed was Washboard Hank, more for his unusual self-designed instrument. I would have turned his radio performance off because I wouldn’t have seen the practiced moves the man makes to play his one-man percussion ensemble.

The performance started late because of the lineups at the box office of people collecting their (on-line purchased?) tickets. And, because it was three radio shows' worth, the performance lasted until about 11:20 p.m.: too late to drop my in-laws at the GO station. Naturally, I was planning to drive them home anyway. What with driving them home to Scarborough in the pouring rain, taking the dog for a walk when I got back, and the daylight save time change I didn’t hit the hay until after 3 a.m. Fortunately, I got bit over 6 hours sleep before the dog got restless in its crate near our bed.

Despite the short night’s sleep I only added a couple of minutes to my usual route running time. It was pretty cold today with the north winds chilling a body to -10°C. How windy? On a neighbouring street I saw a blue spruce about 4 or 5 metres tall was blow over. There wasn’t a very big root system for the size of the tree. Perhaps they should grow in the forest, not in the middle of a lawn.

Walking a year-old puppy consists of her tugging at the leash until she almost chokes herself. So we jog for a few seconds, until she stops and sniffs around a tree or post. Repeat for every tree, post, evergreen, garbage can and rock.

Did you know that a golden retriever, given half an hour or so, can reduce a frisbee to a scattered pile of small, slobbery plastic bits?

Even though it’s just after 8:30 in the old time zone, I’m almost ready for bed.

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There’s a company MS Word™ form that everyone has to fill out and check boxes every time a potential job comes along. The two page document is only about 50k — small for a Word document. However, a colleague complained that when he printed it, the print file ballooned to three megabytes. It took me a while to find out why because the document is “protected” and you may only fill in the blanks and check the boxes. When I expanded the view to 500% I found that all the tables and frames were dotted lines. These lines get translated into little tiny filled boxes when printing to a postscript printer. Each of those tiny boxes becomes about 80 bytes of ascii characters in postscript.

I emailed the author and suggested he use light gray lines instead. The form will look the same and each line will be one long rectangle of, still just 80 bytes, not a zillion little 80 byte boxes. This modest change should save the company some gigabytes of excess traffic on the LAN and print spooler space.

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In Thailand it is already April 2^nd and my “baby” brother is now “well into” his 40’s. This will be an eventful year for him as my sister-in-law is expecting their second child about June 17. (Usually I wouldn’t remember such an abstract date; however, it’s inscribed in my wedding ring. ) The other part of this adventure will be the novelty of giving birth in Thailand. This may not be as bad as it sounds given the experience of one couple I know whose twins were born in the midst of the Toronto SARS crisis last year. What does this have to do with Bob’s birthday? Nothing whatsoever, but this, after all, is a rambling blog.