Staged...

In looking at my notes from last night, it turns out I actually did get halfway through what was left (I started with 5900 words left; I now have 2900), and it wasn't as if I drove myself painstakingly along; I just kept going until I felt like stopping, and then did a couple more paragraphs.

The client sending me to Ukraine has sent along another short (700 word) item, due today. I think I'll do it as a "warmup."

Then, sometime today, I'll have to break away to go pick up meds at the pharmacy and maybe wander downtown to see about voting as an absentee.

Cheers...

Stung!

Some time ago, I shelled out some shekels for an application called Babylon, which does an adequate job of looking up individual French words (and the occasional phrase). It was installed on webster and I assumed, when I bought hammer, that the common convention of allowing purchasers to install software on a desktop and laptop applied.

Well, not only is the answer no, but no-and-we've-disabled-your-installation-please-refer-to-our-email-for-a-new-license-code. Apparently, if I want to use the software on two machines that I and only I use, I need two licenses, and while the cost of a second license is discounted, it turns out I'd also have to license a second copy of any dictionary that I'd want to be able to use on both machines.

If deciding which machine I want the application installed on isn't difficult enough, the whole situation is particularly irksome, as I had just purchased an upgrade to the program about a week ago. Presumably, I'd want to have it on hammer, which is my designated "travel" machine, for those cases where I need to use a dictionary where there is poor or no Internet access (although in my experience, the program's performance is markedly weaker without such access).

We are, I think, at the cusp of a very unglamorous future, where it will be common for software vendors to retain control over their products - and this can only mean "over how you use their products" - long after they have been bought and installed (the elephant in the room in this regard is Apple, which seems singularly bent on controlling what applications people run on their iPhones, to the extent that the company reserves the right to remotely disable applications for reasons that Apple deems appropriate).

As it is, I have not enjoyed my experience with Babylon, and as the application is only so-so in terms of performance (I bought the upgrade for the dictionaries that came with it), I doubt I'll have much to do with the company in the future.

Cheers...

Something new every day...

A pair of terms popped up yesterday that puzzled me. Both had to do with testing process pipelines. For a while, they made a few swipes with picks and shovels at the back of my mind, but now they've shown up again and started a major mining operation, so it's time to hunker down and figure out what they really mean.

One is "испытание на плотность"; the other, "испынание на герметичность."

"Плотность" usually means "density," but when you fill a pipe with water under pressure and check to see if anything drips out, you're not testing for density. Such a test is a leak test, and indeed, "плотность" can be used in the sense of "tightness" (as in "leak tightness") or "the quality of being leakproof." So there's no problem there; leak testing is pretty common in the engineering business.

Except that about the only meaning for "герметичность" in this context is... "tightness" (as in "leak tightness") or "the quality of being leakproof."

See the problem? They both seem to be "leak tests."

And it's not a case of synonymous usage; the text is referring to two distinctly separate tests (two-thirds of a trio, the third being a material strength test).

After noodling around for about 20 minutes and looking at text that assumes the reader just intuitively knows what's what in the discussion, I ran across the following in a fire safety standard:

Проверку на прочность, плотность материала и герметичность соединений всасывающих головок ... проводят на гидравлическом испытательном стенде.

Suction nozzle strength, плотность of material, and герметичность of joints ... are tested on a hydraulic test stand. [my translation]

Aha!

It was as if someone had thrown a switch.

Apparently, an "испытание на плотность" for piping refers to a test to make sure the pipe hardware doesn't leak (i.e., the pipes have only two holes, one at each end). And consequently, an "испынание на герметичность" tests for leakage at the places where pipes connect to each other (i.e., at the joints).

I think I will call these "pipe leak test" and "joint leak test" (unless I find something better, which I really don't have time for right now).

Cheers...

Following links...

I am generally not one for obituaries, but LJ friend rjlippincott brought my attention to one for a fellow named Jim Adams.

Now, I knew a fellow named Jim Adams once, back when I worked at Borland. He endeared himself to me forever with a comment he scrawled on the cover of a marketing piece I had written and distributed for comment to pretty much everyone in the business unit, to the effect that I should not get discouraged by nitpicks from folks who couldn't string a half-dozen words without error, much less write what I had written, which he thought was splendid.

So you can understand my need to click on the link, on the off chance that this was my Jim Adams.

It wasn't, but the obit was a refreshing change of pace.

He was sadly deprived of his final wish, which was to be run over by a beer truck on the way to the liquor store to buy booze for a date. True to his personal style, he spent his final hours joking with medical personnel, cussing and begging for narcotics and bargaining with God to look over his loving dog, Biscuit, and his family.

[...]

In lieu of flowers, he asks that you make a sizeable purchase at your favorite watering hole, get rip roaring drunk and tell the stories he no longer can.

There's a peck of comments posted. My favorite was one posted by a certain 'randy', who is apparently a fan of the late H.S. Thompson, who said:

Life is not a journey to the grave
With the intention of
Arriving safely in a pretty
And well-preserved body,
But rather to skid in broadside,
Thoroughly used up,
Totally worn out,
And loudly proclaiming,
"WOW !!!! What a ride!"

Strangely uplifting.

Cheers...