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Ramping down the rpms...
As promised, I got an NDA and a questionnaire from the prospective client. The NDA is one of the best that I've seen, addressing what I believe is the real purpose of such a document, and that's to make sure that end-client materials stay confidential. For once, I did not see some variation on "you promise never to do work for any of our clients," which in one memorable case, extended to not simply refraining from working for the agency's clients, but to not engaging in any commercial transactions with said clients at all!
(Those who might point out that "you promise never..." seems more appropriate for a non-compete agreement, I agree completely. I don't write 'em; I'm just expected to sign 'em.)
I'm not sure I did so well on the questionnaire, as I reformatted half of it to be able to answer the questions. We'll see.
I managed to get up at 5 am this morning, by which time Venus was above the pine tree outside the room I sleep in. I could see nothing unusual in the sky while wearing my for-distance glasses, nor could I spy anything that looked suspiciously like a comet using my binoculars. Heck, I might have been looking in the wrong place anyway.
In any event, I had about five minutes of observation before the horizon started to lighten and the dimmer stars faded out, so I reset the clock for 6 am and tried to go back to sleep, with little success. At 6, I got up again, got dressed, and eventually found my way downtown to Victoria's Café, for the ham breakfast.
It seems that the first rule of ham breakfast is to not talk about ham radio. Computers? Fine. The shenanigans of the airport manager? Sure! Local history? Bring it on! Ham radio? Whassat?
After the breakfast, I stopped by the store to help open the place up and was called almost immediately by my best client. The project manager there, who had been out sick yesterday, was looking for some fast turnaround on some documents that had been requested on a pretty short deadline. Could I do one by the end of the day today and a second for Monday morning? Sure!
So, I blitzed home and started typing. Fortunately for me, I'd done these kinds of documents so often, there are times I think I could do them without referring to the original (just kidding). As it was, I was able to ship back the first document by the early afternoon, and managed to send back the second a little while ago. I shall savor the invoicing, which will occur Monday.
* * * Something must be "just right" in the environment in my office, because four orchids have bloomed within the past 36 hours. (I was starting to lose the faith with regard to the new plant, which I bought a couple of weeks ago, but which showed no signs of change until just a couple of days past.)
* * * A long time ago, I downloaded and used an application that allows you to control what processes are launched during Windows startup. I couldn't find it on my desktop (maybe it's installed on the Vaio, I don't recall), so I downloaded something promising and I hope it does the trick.
I am so weary of software - pretty much all of it - that figures I simply can't live without some precious piece of code that shaves away another bit of memory and advertises its presence in my tray.
One of the last straws came when I installed my Petit Larousse French dictionary, which is one of those maddening applications that decides - from time to time - to ask you to mount the install CD before letting you into the program. (I found this out, BTW, during one of my trips to Baikonur, having installed and run the app a few times before departing without the CD.) Despite this lame behavior behavior, the app insists on staking out a claim in my tray. WTH?
The last straw was laid when one of my applications shut down due to some error and asked if I wanted Windows to notify the publisher. Normally, I click on "Don't Send," and now I know why: the one time I figure such a notification may be a good idea, there's apparently no server for Windows to connect to, which has not dissuaded the app trying to establish contact from attempting to do so every time I've subsequently started my machine.
We'll see how the machine behaves when next I boot it. I am optimistic.
Cheers...
(Those who might point out that "you promise never..." seems more appropriate for a non-compete agreement, I agree completely. I don't write 'em; I'm just expected to sign 'em.)
I'm not sure I did so well on the questionnaire, as I reformatted half of it to be able to answer the questions. We'll see.
I managed to get up at 5 am this morning, by which time Venus was above the pine tree outside the room I sleep in. I could see nothing unusual in the sky while wearing my for-distance glasses, nor could I spy anything that looked suspiciously like a comet using my binoculars. Heck, I might have been looking in the wrong place anyway.
In any event, I had about five minutes of observation before the horizon started to lighten and the dimmer stars faded out, so I reset the clock for 6 am and tried to go back to sleep, with little success. At 6, I got up again, got dressed, and eventually found my way downtown to Victoria's Café, for the ham breakfast.
It seems that the first rule of ham breakfast is to not talk about ham radio. Computers? Fine. The shenanigans of the airport manager? Sure! Local history? Bring it on! Ham radio? Whassat?
After the breakfast, I stopped by the store to help open the place up and was called almost immediately by my best client. The project manager there, who had been out sick yesterday, was looking for some fast turnaround on some documents that had been requested on a pretty short deadline. Could I do one by the end of the day today and a second for Monday morning? Sure!
So, I blitzed home and started typing. Fortunately for me, I'd done these kinds of documents so often, there are times I think I could do them without referring to the original (just kidding). As it was, I was able to ship back the first document by the early afternoon, and managed to send back the second a little while ago. I shall savor the invoicing, which will occur Monday.
I am so weary of software - pretty much all of it - that figures I simply can't live without some precious piece of code that shaves away another bit of memory and advertises its presence in my tray.
One of the last straws came when I installed my Petit Larousse French dictionary, which is one of those maddening applications that decides - from time to time - to ask you to mount the install CD before letting you into the program. (I found this out, BTW, during one of my trips to Baikonur, having installed and run the app a few times before departing without the CD.) Despite this lame behavior behavior, the app insists on staking out a claim in my tray. WTH?
The last straw was laid when one of my applications shut down due to some error and asked if I wanted Windows to notify the publisher. Normally, I click on "Don't Send," and now I know why: the one time I figure such a notification may be a good idea, there's apparently no server for Windows to connect to, which has not dissuaded the app trying to establish contact from attempting to do so every time I've subsequently started my machine.
We'll see how the machine behaves when next I boot it. I am optimistic.
Cheers...
no subject
- Virtual CD Control Panel - that allows you to mount an ISO file as a drive letter. I forget where I found it, but it's free.