Goodbye old friend

Today I waved goodbye to the first car that was really mine. The first car that I researched, picked out, bought new, financed, and paid off.

It was a 1995 Ford Explorer with over 150,000 miles - most from the first 5 years. I had a couple of cars before it that were registered in my name but they were family hand me downs and I do not think we ever even changed the title with those. The Explorer was picked out when I was doing a lot more road trips and camping with friends. It also helped me move 4 times, made many trips to the hardware store for my dad, transported a lawnmower between homes for a summer, and it survived - with only a little body damage - Hurricane Fran trying to hide it under 4 trees.

It served me well but we finally reached a point where it would cost more to have it fixed than it was worth as a trade in. It no longer wanted to let me move the gear shaft into place (it was a stick) and it seemed that the clutch was not disengaging the transmission so it might not cost much in parts but the labor costs alone would exceed the trade value.

I donated it to Habitat for Humanity. I hope they can make some money. It should have some good parts or maybe it can be fixed up easily enough to sell.

-SML

Everything is bigger in Texas

Everything is bigger in Texas. That is what they say isn't it? Well my week can definitely contribute to that at least some of those theories.

The roads are bigger and the cars are bigger and the traffic delays are bigger.
It took 2 hours to go about 25 miles on Friday afternoon trying to get to the airport. That eliminated any chance of getting on the earlier flight....

Getting on the earlier flight probably would not have happened anyway since there were cancellations yesterday due to the storms including the afternoon flight to Raleigh. I am sure they are still trying to find seats for all of those people...

Yesterdays storms were actually Wed afternoon to Thurs afternoon storms. Lots of rain, lots of flooding, lots of wind, lots of damage. Some news reports mentioned "worse ever".

By the way - it is not fun sitting in a car in traffic and jumping out of your skin in surprise when the town tornado sirens go off. I managed to wait out the worst of the storm in the Whole Foods Market eating dinner but I had to fight some strong wind in the parking lot and the power went out briefly just after I got inside. I got a little wet going to work the next morning too.

Despite the hot but otherwise very nice weather in TX tonight, I am sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home that is now almost 2 hours delayed. At this point I won't be home until tomorrow, at least technically.

One thing that was NOT bigger this week was the training room. We crammed 15 people in elbow to elbow to use the laptops on a desks barely deep enough to hold everything. Some very bright guys in this class though.

-SML

You have got to be kidding!

The only direct flights from Raleigh to Newark are on Continental!
I used to take the AA flight. Nothing like downsizing for the economy.

-SML

Using Special pages to assist with wiki cleanup

This is part 2 in a series of articles that can lead to a leaner and meaner wiki for Fedora Project. Part 1 was on "what needs to be done and why".

[ed note: Paul was quick to follow my suggestion in Part 1 and has already moved and categorized many of the older Board Meeting pages. Now to find a new example...]

Start on any Fedora Project wiki page such as https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/
Look at the menus on the left at the "Toolbox" near the bottom.

Click on "Special pages"

Lets begin in the second section which is titled "List of pages"

* All pages - allows you list all pages beginning with a specific string. It defaults to the main space but can also be used to find pages in other namespaces.

Example: Looking at pages that begin with "bug" shows all the BugZappers/Meetings/* files that can be moved to the Meeting namespace. The directory hierarchy style of naming in a carry over from the old wiki system and is not recommended in the current mediawiki environment. So these files should also be renamed to something more like "Bugzappers meeting minutes $date" and placed into a category such as "Bugzappers meetings". Another large example would be pages that start with Extras. Since Extras is from Fedora Core days, I would guess that many of these pages can be archived or renamed.

Warning: All pages will list redirect pages as well as pages with content. For example, listing all pages that start with Docs/Beats also shows many pages. However, follow one of the links and you will find that these pages have already been renamed to Documentation Beats. [Look below the (new) title and above the banner image where is says "redirected from" - the URL will not change (yet)]. This is an example of why it is more useful for members of a team to move their own pages rather than the wiki team trying to keep track of everything.

*Categories - lists all the categories that have pages. Use this list to find an existing category or to get ideas for additional categories. There are less than 500 categories at the moment.

Example: There was already a "Board meetings logs" category and now there is also a "Board meetings" category. Docs Project has categories "Docs Project meetings" and Docs Project meeting logs" and "Docs Project archives" and several others.

Tip: Categories can be placed in other categories. This provides the hierarchy. The above mentioned Docs Project categories are all sub categories to "Docs Project"

Warning: Category names are case sensitive and spelling does count.

The last two options that I find particularly useful to the wiki cleanup project are from the top section titled "Maintenance reports" and are

* Uncategorized pages - pages that are not yet in any category. The wiki team would like to see this page have "no results" Currently there are about 3700 pages here - or more than one third of the "content pages" in the wiki. Since Paul has begun cleaning up the Board pages, BugZappers is the next good example alphabetically.

* Uncategorized categories - categories not yet in other categories. The wiki team would like to see this list trimmed to less than a dozen.

Now that you have found the pages, the next step is to rename them and add categories.

For renaming see Ian's tip of the week entry.

For categories return to my notes on wiki cleanup and its links to policy and help pages.

Next time: more examples of using categories.

-SML

A long weekend

My long weekend has started out productive. I spent Saturday morning cleaning the gutters. Cleaning the leaves out of the gutters and cleaning the dirt off the visible part of the gutters. Then I planted some summer annuals in the pots out front. By then I was very warm and hungry. After lunch I cleaned up a pile of old paperwork by sorting, shredding, and recycling. After a quick trip to the store for cream to go with the fresh strawberries, it is now time for a nap.


-SML

Will Tar Heels be cheering for Duke?

I am a Red Sox fan. I follow baseball. I am familiar with best 5 of 7 or 3 of 5 series. I am used to watching the wild card race at the end of the season and all the possible combinations of who has to win or who has to loose to get a particular team into the playoffs. I also enjoy going to a local minor league game with a group of friends.

College tournaments can be a little different. The ACC Baseball tournament is this weekend at the local minor league park. There are 8 teams competing. They are divided into 2 pools of 4 teams. Each pool plays a round robin schedule of 3 games in 4 days. The winner of each pool plays in the championship game on the 5th day. Tie breakers are first head to head in the pool and second regular season percentages.

I think this is why sports can be a good subject for teaching math and logic.

FSU clinched a championship spot after its second win in pool A. Pool B is a little more interesting. It will be decided by the last game of the 4 days - beginning at 8pm tonight. That game is between Virginia and Duke.

If Virginia wins, they go to the championship game.
So you would think that UNC fans, who would normally cheer for anyone but Duke, would be for VA. Well maybe not. Especially if UNC wins its game at 4pm.

See VA is 2-0 and if they lose they will be 2-1.
If Duke wins they will be 2-1.
If UNC wins this afternoon they will also be 2-1.

For a three way tie. UNC gets the spot because of regular season wins.

Now if UNC loses this afternoon they will be out and I am sure the Tar Heel fans will return to normal anyone but Duke cheering. Assuming they stay to watch the game at all.

At that point the winner of the 8pm game goes to the championship.
If VA wins they go with a 3-0 record.
If Duke wins, both VA and Duke have 2-1 records and the tie breaker if who won when they play each other.

How is that for learning math and logic? I bet you could even fit in a lesson on flow charts?

-SML

The back roads of Valley Forge

Last month I was in King of Prussia. Yes, that is the name of a town. It is in Pennsylvania. I was asked that question when online with the Fedora Docs Project recently. It is best known today for its large mall. It is also in the area of Valley Forge.

When working for this client, I stay at the Valley Forge Convention Center. The hotel does have a fridge and a microwave but I still much prefer the full kitchens of a Residence Inn or Homewood Suites. The full suite hotels also usually have two large windows providing more light and general niceness.

A big plus for the Legal Seafood at the mall. They have always brought wonderful hot rolls to the table unless of course you are ordering from the gluten free menu as I now do. This time however, I was offered some gluten free rolls to try. "We just got them in, please tell me what you think". I think they are very good. He also said they have rolls for sandwiches now as well.

The training center used to be in Conshohocken so I have already been to several of the Whole Foods in the area. The closest one to Valley Forge is in Wayne. It is a small store with not the best selection for a hot bar and dinner but they did have the flourless chocolate cake that I found and liked out in Las Vegas. I knew how to get there from the airport and the highway and I had mapped out a more direct route from the store to the hotel before I left home. That is if you can call windy back roads direct. It seemed that it would be more fun then going all the way back to the highway and around.

Then I ran into a roadblock. Well, really construction and a detour and I came out not quite where I thought I would. Luckily it was near two other roads I recognized from the maps and I made it the rest of the way to the hotel without more than one u-turn and only a few extra miles. So far it is still the fun type of adventure.

So the next night, I took the adventure an other direction and tried going through Valley Forge to get down to the road for the Whole Foods. Another roadblock and detour - they were working on the bridge over the turnpike. There are not many ways across the turnpike. Unfortunately this time I got a little turned around and then ended up off the back roads and on a highway. It took a while to find an exit and get turned back around. That adventure turned into about an hour to get to the store but only about 15 minutes to get back.

One other interesting point on my tour of the back roads of PA was finding Devon. I was driving along the road that has the Whole Foods and I saw the buildings of the Devon horse show and fairgrounds. I didn't realize it was so small. It is packed into this little town and only a few blocks from the Whole Foods. There were signs for trailer parking way away from the complex. I assume they have a shuttle. I know it as one of the big Dressage shows on the East Coast. The show started as a fundraiser for a therapeutic riding center. I think it still is that but it also attracts many top level international competitors.

I am going back to Valley Forge in June. I think I will see if I can find my way to one of the other Whole Foods stores that are further north. I have been to at least one. It was a good bit further away but it was also a much newer and much larger store. I may even make it a challenge to get there without using the highways again. I would also like to do more walking in the Valley Forge historic park.

-SML