January 2012
1 post
Today's fun MySQL fact
If you create a full text index on a table it will fool everyone by looking like it is an actual index, but not in fact be useful as an index to anyone and the database will go back to table scanning everything.
Fixing this took the peak load on a db server from 20 or so to 0.2, I think. It’s hard to measure because top’s overhead is becoming significant.
June 2011
10 posts
Box is home safe! Now to finish it and fill it.
One of the things that is hardest for me to deal with emotionally about going to the East Coast is that I am going from a place where trees are basically ornamental to a place where trees are basically long lived pests. The densest forests in Southern California are sparser than people’s yards here.
“Either I’m getting better or my standards are slackening.”
– Me, after a dovetailed skirt fit off the saw.
Tired. Sore. But a good kind. I think this is the first time I’ve ever done woodworking continuously for like eight hours before.
... dwarves are scary ...
The Hammerdwarf bites The Goblin Spearman in the left lower arm, bruising the muscle through the ({large rat leather cloak})!
The Hammerdwarf latches on firmly!
The Hammerdwarf shakes The Goblin Spearman around by the left lower arm, tearing apart the left lower arm’s muscle and bruising the bone!
An artery in the left lower arm has been opened by the attack, many nerves have...
May 2011
15 posts
I have attached asphalt shingles to the roof of my lumber shed. Some little work to do left but mostly everything is done with it now.
“
The farmer Mothkat Shedimudil has come! A short, sturdy creature fond of...”
– Toast024 on the DF forums
My cat apparently suffers some sort of massive emotional breakdown when I go into the garage for a few hours—this is with another human in the house who could pay attention to him.
Gotta remember “the quench oil is very hot” next time I play with fire. Ow.
“I need more liquid oxygen.”
– Things I did not envision myself saying quite so soon
““I’m not sure if I would call this a cave-in gun, as it seems a tad...”
– as seen on the DF forums
New shed full of lumber. Old lumber rack broken into elementary units and assimilated. Brain no work because of tired. Sleep now. headdesk
As I move lumber to the new shed I keep finding boards that I had completely forgotten about. Does this happen to other people?
Today’s topic of discussion: tools my father owns that scare the devil out of the both of us.
the warmup round: wobble dado blade
the true scariness: shaper blades for his radial arm saw
Work makes fun of me for wanting to work instead of socialize during team building week, but it is 90 dB in this room purely from folks talking.
“In general Sony’s engineers seem to have the free hand in designing the...”
– Quoted here so I don’t lose it again: L2GX on Sony’s computer design
It probably says something about me that my favorite gardening tool is a hatchet. What that might be I dunno.
April 2011
1 post
Words fail me →
March 2011
8 posts
1 tag
Oh, Dwarf Fortress, how I adore you
Urist McGeneral: Fear not the goblin hordes in that dark tower! For tonight, WE DINE ON PLUMP HELMETS IN HELL!
Urist McSpeardwarf: I've actually done that.
Urist McGeneral: Come again?
Urist McSpeardwarf: I've eaten a roast made of plump helmets grown in Hell.
Urist McGeneral: Who, here, in the what now?
Urist McSpeardwarf: My cousin owns a little restaurant the next fort over that's actually in Hell. The back wall is slade and everything. A demon even came in while I was eating and started roaring at us. Some miner named Urist stared at it for a second, set his biscuit down, and jammed his pick into its brain.
Urist McSwordsman: You're putting us on.
Urist McSpeardwarf: Heck, I've got its skull right here in my backpack. Check this out.
Urist McGeneral: SWEET MERCIFUL ARMOK!
Urist McSpearfwarf: RARRR... I'm a big bad Falcon Demon named Murray who doesn't know what a Legendary Miner is. I'm a MONSTAAA! RARRRR! Oh, oh, pick in my brain. Down I go.
You might be tired if…
… three cats escaped out your front door when you got home. And you only own two.
“If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of...”
– Thomas de Quincey
“In due course they were discovered by the proprietress of the various pairs of...”
– John Manners, on scissors
February 2011
16 posts
1 tag
I think I understand better now why a lot of Japanese planes are bedded at 40 degrees. Yeah yeah yeah tearout but when it works it is amazing.
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Amazing metalworking videos
These are unbelievable.
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The saga of Graham and the furnace
My furnace pilot light wouldn’t stay lit. Landlord looked at it, couldn’t fix it, said to get a professional. And today it was cold, so I decided to look into fixing it, leading to the following comedy of errors:
The ducting to the attic was not connected and also misaligned. No wonder my gas bill was so high. Fixed with duct tape. First time I’ve ever heard of duct tape...
2 tags
Dammit! My new plane, my first ever, is so close to done, but I forgot to reserve some material for the wedge.
Incidentally I find it hilarious that some of my books presume you will go through all the laborious, time consuming, precise mortising and then have trouble with the slot for the cap iron screw. That was easy compared to getting the wedge abutments just right.
My new headphones are so awesome I lost an hour of time somewhere.
1 tag
“If C++ has taught me one thing, it’s this: Just because the system is...”
– Andrew Plotkin
1 tag
“Now I am using your code and getting familiar with the encoding. I must say the...”
– The sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me about my grad student work.
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Day[9] #256—I am blown away →
That was incredible. I suck at SC2 but I am damned sure I’m going to be incorporating more mass queens. The fact that it relieves drone pressure is really, really nice.
1 tag
“A REAL chainsaw had a gear-stick with a blue knob on it. Precursors,
they were,...”
– John Manners, on chainsaws in the Good Old Days
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My first complex moulding plane, and I fear it has bested me. I can’t get the mouth to stop choking. I’ll have to look at it fresh another day.