random neuron misfires

Well, its time to make it public… after so may people have asked for it, so here goes.

I’ve taken the original 9/11 Commission Report and converted it all to validated XHTML so I could then read and redistribute it in Plucker format. It is also on MemoWare and on PalmGear, and on FreewarePalm. I may convert it to iSilo format, if there is a great-enough need.

I took the original 567-page PDF and converted it by hand to validated XHTML, chapter by chapter, and paragraph by paragraph. I also added a lot of usability features that were not in the original, specifically for people reading it on a PalmOS handheld device. No less than 20 hours were used to convert this over to this “superlinked” copy. I also have my conversion ChangeLog as well, for those who are interested in how this is progressing. I’m at version 1.5 now.

• Every annotation mentioned in the document has been linked to their respective Notes page
• The Notes pages were restructured to facilitate this usability
• A completely new Table of Contents, linked to every section and sub-section
• Each chapter has its own mini-TOC at the top which links to the sub-sections in the chapters
• The List of Illustrations page links to each image in the report

…and lots of other features
This copy is much more useful than the original PDF, because of the depth of the crosslinking I added to it and the wrapping and punctuation corrections I also made in thousands of places.

Please link to it. My hope is that this will become the most widely-used version of this document, because it is currently the only one searchable via the web, due to the fact that it is online in HTML format.

The information presented in this report is too important to ignore.

Our online photo album of our new daughter Seryn is almost done. We’re trying not to be overly zealous with the camera taking dozens of pictures a day, but its hard, she’s so darn cute!. We’ve got 569 photos in there so far, all categorized, sorted, and resized for web viewing.

I’ve tasked Erika with taking control of that little project, and she’s done an amazing job of it. I’m very impressed, and she worked hard to get it done.

When its all set and ready to launch, I’ll announce the link here, of course. All kinds of new things going on these days…

Yes, Home Depot does replacement windows, and siding, and all kinds of things. They contract it out to local contractors who do the actual install.

We have had several of our windows replaced by Home Depot so far. The first one was our big bay window facing the back yard. That was a complicated replacement, because there were some side “porthole” windows, and the big set of bend-out bay windows, and some tall side windows. The installers did a really amazing job.

The next round, was three windows along the side of the house. The installers for the second job were a different pair of guys, and they didn’t do such a good job. They spilled some solvent on our newly-painted window trim, causing it to “smear”, they forgot to caulk and seal the inside of the windows, and they managed to just “rip off” the thermometer from the side of the house, without even asking if we wanted to keep it there.

They installed the windows, and then.. true to form… Murphy’s Law kicked in. We ordered a very specific style of window called “Prairie Grids” or “perimeter grids”, for the upper half of the window. This style is very unique to the style of our home. Of course, we got the normal colonial “pane” windows instead.

So we called Home Depot, and mentioned it to them, and they said they’d just re-order new top-window pieces. So far, so good. 2 days ago, we get a call that the guy is just a block away with the windows in the back of his truck, and he wanted to know if he could just stop by and drop them in. Sure, I said.

He arrives, with the windows in towe. As he’s bringing them to the front of the house, I notice that they’re… not… quite what we wanted. One of them is a solid piece of glass, and the other two look fairly normal.

I mentioned this to him, and he says

“Well, if you don’t want ’em, I’ll just throw them in a dumpster, and re-order you some new ones.”

Apparently it costs more for them to store the mis-ordered, mis-shaped windows, so they just toss them.

So I said I’ll just take them, and use them as spares, in case we break one of these (or in case we sell the house, and we don’t have all of the windows replaced with prairie style windows).

Sigh. Just another example of how we can’t ever have clean closure to anything we rely on other people to do for us.