...been at 'em. Time to pause....

I've been up since shortly after 7, and after struggling a bit with the 4-pager that's due to Lev this morning (Word acting finicky with regard to a DLL and difficulties with some kind of weird formatting in an HTML file). The item is gone, now, though, and I can... what? Get ready for work?

Blyeah.

Yesterday's e-mail contained an item from my client, to the effect that JSC is apparently cracking down on people accessing off-site mail, which is a big no-no (apparently, just about all outbreaks of e-mail viruses and worms over the past couple of years could be traced to people getting them from off-site sources).

While I'm fairly exacting in hewing to the line of the policy, my heart nonetheless skipped a beat when I saw the message subject line and who it was from, as the thought that flashed immediately into my head was: "What did I do?"

As it turned out, though, the note was a mailing to all hands, reminding everyone about the policy, but noting that someone among the staff (and I suspect I know who) was nailed by TPTB at JSC for accessing an off-site mail service.

The chatter from outside the door has stopped. Earlier, as I sat here frantically flailing at the keyboard on Ellroy (my VAIO), Lee and a bunch of her friends had come in from the porch and started to chat... aha... I hear them returning, from a walk apparently.

Gotta go get ready for the day.

Cheers...

Almost 12 hours later...

The flood of radiogram traffic appears to be subsiding, as the visiting crew starts to wind up its activities and get ready to take the old Soyuz back to the ground. The pressure today was noticeably not as high today as it was earlier in the week.

I'm still on the MCC, taking care of my own stuff on my own time, but all good things must come to an end, so I'm going home and resting.

I have a 20-page item due on Monday morning that I really need to start on tonight, but... we'll see.

Cheers...

A gamble...

So this translation I'm doing for client M is a Russian standard, but next to the standard number is a reference to an ISO standard. So off I go to look up this standard and...

...I find it on the ISO website (good news). I can only get it if I buy it (bad news), and it's CHF 80 (about $50).

So I have to ask myself if I'm feeling lucky. No doubt, the Russian version of the standard is going to have its... departures... from anything in the ISO inventory. Will it be worth it?

This issue came up once before, when I was doing the steel tank specification. I didn't buy the appropriate standard then (mostly because it was way too expensive). Should I risk it?

I decide to give it a whirl. I enter all my data, but fail to note that - despite the fact that I am buying an electronic version of the standard - the ISO site insists on sending it to me via snail mail.

Say what, bro'?

Fortunately, the system rejects my attempt to buy the standard, saying it can't deliver it by mail, and suggests I resubmit my purchase request, but with delivery effected by DSL this time.

No, thank you.

A few more minutes of web-surfing uncovers the availability of the document from the ANSI web site, for $50. I enter the appropriate info and download the 189 KB file almost immediately.

As I suspected, the Russian document and the ISO standard differ, and it's easy to see that the difference is significant. However, a closer examination shows sentences and occasional short paragraphs are identical.

So the determination of whether the $50 was worth it will come at the end of the project, when I'll have to figure out just how much time the document (which is a "killer" reference) will save me. I figure it's saved me at least 10 minutes (maybe 15) so far, and I'm 3 pages into the thing.

But I've done about as much as I can do, today, so there I'll leave it.

Cheers...