Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I recently posted that I wanted a network clipboard that would let me copy/paste between different machines on my LAN. I've solved part of the problem. I found a Windows-only program that runs on both NT and 95 and uses Alt-Control-C and Alt-Control-V to copy and paste respectively. Alas, it does not work for applications which can only copy/paste using the Edit menu (such as NetTerm, which is either the source or destination about three fourths of the time for me). I found another program which is described as simply cloning anything copied to the Windows clipboard to a network notepad -- if the most-recently-copied item is automagically available for simple paste from the Windows clipboard on other machines, that'll be groovy, except that a) it only claims to run on 95 & 98, and my right-hand machine is running NT; and b) the download link from the page I found it on doesn't work.

In the meantime, I found a configuration option for Exceed that makes it automatically clone the X selection to the Windows clipboard and vice-versa, so now I can at least save a step copying to and from X applications. Hey, I guess that means I don't need to leave those two xterms open all the time any more. (I used them to save a step when copying between Windows apps and command-line Linux.)

On another topic ... on Sunday I got really annoyed at not being able to use the state of Maryland's official web site (http:/maryland.gov. Having a diplomacy deficiency that morning, I wrote a rant to the folks there...

I don't really expect a reply, but it'd be nice if they at least acknowledged reading the complaint. Even nicer if they fix it, of course, but also less likely still. (My thanks to xpioti for pointing out the <lj-cut> tag to me.)

My office has cooled off a bit since sundown. It's now down to 305 Kelvins. Still way too hot for clothing. The foil on the window at the base of the back stair does seem to help a lot. I've been meaning to buy more foil for several days now, but I haven't had the energy to get out to the grocery store. Since I'm currently out of garlic (and bread, and milk, and almost out of oj), I really need to take care of that fairly soon.

Office temperature is 312 Kelvins and climbing. (Temperature in my office peaks a while after the outdoor temperature does.) At least it makes the rest of the house feel cool in comparison...

Need to take a short break, so I'll write something I've been meaning to write about for a few days.

Something that I've seen quite a lot (every single week) since coming to Baltimore a few years ago has me annoyed and puzzled, and I don't recall seeing it as a general behaviour that much before. People will stop their cars in the middle of a traffic lane to wait for someone to come out of a house, with or without putting their flashers on, and they'll do this right next to an empty parking space!

Sometimes they'll leave their cars there to go knock on a door. Other times they'll sit in them an honk their horns (at two in the expletive-participle morning). There'll be a perfectly good parking space one or two car lengths away, or even RIGHT THERE, right beside where they stopped!! I don't understand.

They do this on little side streets where I have to swing into the oncoming lane to get around them. They do this on major streets carrying lots of traffic. I'm not sure whether they do it on single-lane one-way streets where they'll block the entire thing completely, but at this point I'm betting they do.

A few days ago I watched someone abruptly stop right in front of a school bus in the left lane on Lombard Street. I don't think he even glanced at his rear view mirror first. The school bus waited for a while and finally tried to swing around him, at which point a speeder in the right lane nearly caught the bus amidships.

The parked car was stopped neatly lined up beside an open curb spot, so it wasn't a matter of not having a parking space, or being afraid that whomever they were honking for wouldn't see them if they were one or two spaces away from the door; it just never occurred to the driver to put the car in the space instead of blocking traffic.

I don't get it. (Oh wait, I said that already.) Is this a city versus suburb thing (Baltimore's the first time I've lived in a city) or a particularly Baltimoron behaviour?

Finally got around to fishing out this LP from downstairs and sticking it on the turntable in the office. A post on Too Much Info made me think of it, and it'd been a while since I'd listened to it.

Come on down to meet us all you sightings in the sky
Feel free to drop in anytime
Anytme you're just kinda passin' by
And feel you want to meet us
We're fun and games
Just guys and dames
But don't call us names
And most of all
Please don't east us
'Cause we're no baloney, homosapiens
    -- Alice Cooper and D. Wagner, "No Baloney Homosapiens (For Steve & E.T.)"