I have (customer-supplied server) running on a (corporate) laptop with a scrawny little hard drive. The C partition is only 83GB, and while there's another 40GB languishing on D, IT can't repartition without risking data loss and it took too long to get this set up in the first place. So there's a "why can't I just use Partition Magic to fix it?" rant wanting to get out here, but that is not this rant.

This week I ran out of space on C. Usually this means the server has written a bunch of logs that I need to delete, but that wasn't it this time -- I reclaimed maybe 2GB that way. Defrag wouldn't even run well because it didn't have 15% free and couldn't buffer on D -- but that is not this rant.

No, the rant is that when I went looking for the culprit (it's a pretty lean machine as these things go), I found that Proventia Desktop (firewall -- it ought to be called Prevent-ya, as in "prevent ya from getting any work done"!) had written 70GB of logs -- and tampering in any way with firewalls can be a firing offense, not that I have privileges anyway. 70GB -- really? On an 83GB partition? Haven't the guys who make that ever heard of rolling logs? Or archiving? They zipped down to a hundredth their original size. Sheesh!

(Fortunately we have a very helpful on-site support person who was able to fix this for me.)

Serendipitiously, 15 minutes after seeing that scam I saw this excellent tutorial on password management by vonstrassburg. No, not the "how to choose a good password" hints you already know, but, rather, how to deal with the fact that that doesn't really work. I particularly like his suggestions for managing the database file.

From browngirl: Mordor or Iceland? Match the pictures to the source.

I have recently been participating in a small discussion of renaissance music notation... on a mailing list for Jewish worship. No, I didn't start it, but I could hardly let those comments just sit there... And now I have pointers to other editions of Salamone Rossi's music that seem worth investigating (Don Harran in particular). The edition I have is funky; the music is fine, but it's a transcription of a 19th-century French edition and Hebrew transliterated into French phonemes breaks my brain. I transcribe pieces from this book if our choir is going to do them. (What I really want to see is a facsimile edition...)

This tiny horse (link from anastasiav) gave me a serious case of the "aww, cute!"s.

Some iGoogle plug-in served me this cat picture, and all I could think was "yeah, I've had days like that". It's tempting to turn it into a userpic, but I don't know whose property it is.

Erik sometimes makes a squeaking sound now where I would have expected a meow to come out. He still has a full-voiced meow, so it's not like he's caught kitty laryngitis or something, but it's still odd. Embla's normal mode is a sort of chirp (I've only heard her actually meow two or three times), but this sort of thing is new for Erik. Weird.

The nice thing about this is that the glasses can be focused at a more-normal distance, which means I was able to push my monitor back on my desk instead of keeping it at about 8-10". It's now at about 20", give or take. (I did have to change some font settings and some apps, like Outlook, don't respect all the settings, but that's managable. And I'm used to the software world not fully supporting the visually-impaired.) That, in turn, meant that I could finally support a second monitor -- commonly available in my company, but I could never get that much screen in visual range before. But now...

My second 22" monitor arrived yesterday. My plan had been to set it up in portrait mode (which would allow me to have more than 45 lines of text visible in an emacs buffer), but my graphics card's default driver doesn't support that. There is a newer driver, but it has other issues.

But, my computer is coming up on the end of its lease, which means I'm going to have to move off of it in a few months anyway. So, worst case I wait a few months to be able to rotate my monitor, or best case maybe I'll be allowed to switch early. Moving to a new computer is a pain in the butt, especially with all the security exemptions and stuff (to install non-standard software), so I never would have expected to find myself saying "I hope I can replace my computer soon". :-) (Holy cow, I just realized this will be computer #5 for me... maybe I can safely delete the archives from #2.)

I wonder if I can get a trackball or similar pointing device, too. Not to replace the mouse -- to augment it. This is a lot of screen to move across, and I'd like to spare my mouse hand the broad traversals. (I've never been any good at fine control with a trackball or touchpad, but if I could have both that and the mouse... I assume I can plug in two USB pointing devices and they'd both work, and that trackballs etc come USB these days. Something to check.)

So, while talking with my manager about some of the things we were trying to do to address this (our build manager, in whose lap all this falls, has been wonderfully helpful), my manager said "I just ordered some new 22" monitors; I'll put you on the list". (I could, if I like, have a pair of 18?" monitors, but I can't actually place two monitors such that I can see everything.)

This morning the monitor fairy came. :-) 22" turns out to be widescreen (not the 4:3 or whatever of regular monitors); the new one might be half an inch shorter than my old one. But it's tall enough, and the extra real-estate is nice. The recommended resolution is only 1680x1050 (or something like that), which surprised me. (I expected to see a number over 2000 for the wide dimension.) That resolution actually works for me; yay! This was also the highest setting available on my computer; I assume that's a function of the graphics card and not the monitor. (I would not be able to put higher resolution to good use.)

One problem: I noticed some pretty significant color distortion in the top quarter of the screen. We actually thought it was defective, so we swapped it out for another one (slightly different model). The problem was less pronounced on the second one but still there. That's when I noticed that it changed with my height; if I raised my chair a couple inches the problem got much better. But I can't raise my chair a couple inches because then the keyboard will be in the wrong place. (Tried it for an hour. No.) If I could tip the monitor forward a little that would make a difference, but it's already at the max setting there. Perhaps I will channel my inner MacGyver and rig something to let it tip a bit without falling. (Ok, that's more like my inner MacGyver's four-year-old apprentice or something. MacGyver would rig it to track my eyes and auto-pivot in both dimensions, using nothing more than duct tape and pocket lint.)

Mind, I will find ways to live with the color distortion if necessary. The real estate is worth it. It's not a perfect solution; I have to roll my chair sideways a bit to fully utilize the screen. But it's pretty good, and if it just plain gives me the room to have some extra-wide windows that I can move around as needed, that'll do.

I failed to record my monitor customizations before removing the old one, so I was recreating color depth, brightness, etc by feel today, but I thought I'd written this down somewhere and, sure enough, I did. So I'll try those settings tomorrow (they're somewhat different from what I came up with today) and see how that affects my color distortion.

One other problem (handily solved): the first monitor did not have buttons but rather touch controls. With tiny little labels that are impossible to read in dim lighting. I had to borrow a flashlight and use my magnifying glass to configure the monitor. The second one (an older model) has buttons. Yeah, I'll keep that one. What was Samsung thinking? Touch controls?! (And finicky ones, too.)

Clever, in that "uh-oh" sort of way: one piece of spam-sending malware installs its own anti-virus program, because it doesn't want all your other viruses slowing it down. (I recommend Security Mentor to pretty much everyone, even the tech-savvy. Syndicated here as securitymentor2.)

Unclever, in that "uh-oh" sort of way: A few months ago I replaced my anti-virus software (moved from MacAfee to BitDefender). I disabled MacAfee but didn't uninstall at the time. This weekend my subscription expired -- and something (MacAfee? Windows?) decided that since I was obviously unprotected, it would be best for all concerned if I couldn't see the internet. Ahem. Fixing that was much more hassle than it should have been.

When I was in Boston one of the LJ folk I talked with (I forget who) mentioned t'fillin Barbie. I've now forgotten where I got the link too; I think a (different) LJ source. Twisted, very twisted. (The Barbie, I mean, not my friends. :-) )

I found this article on reaching the 20- and 30-somethings in congregations interesting. Excerpt:

Jewish community leaders would do well to examine the changing nature of today's 20 and 30 year olds. For Baby Boomers, synagogue membership and Jewish institutional affiliations were primary markers of Jewish identity. In the past, Jews showed their support for synagogue life by paying dues- whether they were enthusiastic participants or not. Today, that sense of obligation is gone: young adults do not feel compelled to join a synagogue if they have no intention of attending. However, when they to do decide to join, they participate as active, invested members.