Daley Ponderings

I am working on a Vista machine for a client, and was trying to update things - the firewall was turned off, windows update hadn't been run in a while, etc.  Windows Defender was complaining about not updating for the last 8 months, and currently giving me an error of 0x8024402c.  I searched around on the internet, and found people talking about uninstalling defender, restarted the BITS service, running windows update manually, etc.  None of that worked - all reported hexadecimal code errors. (More)

I have been working on an interesting project for a customer of mine - and as is with lots of his projects, end up seeing lots of internet headlines while working on the projects.  This particular project involves tracking what things people are talking about and searching for.  One source of the results comes from google trends, which shows the current top 100 most frequent searches, as well as historical trends.

Lots of searches that show up on the top 10 list are things that I wouldn't ever search for (I am not too surprised based on the content (It seems that a substantial number of people sit and watch tv and type in phrases that people say), but the format of the searches is interesting too).  I noticed today that the search frequency for green bean casserole was on the top 100 list, and that it has a sharp peak right around now each year, and then a smaller peak at Christmas time.  I've only had a couple different kinds of green bean casseroles in my life, and I don't recall any of them being very good.  (More)

I have heard people debate about whether not being able to hear a child playing is worse than hearing one that is really loud.  I can tell you that I would take either one over waking up to sounds of water splashing around.  (More)

I have been quite behind in my magazine reading, and this morning I caught up to August (2008 - at some points, it has been necessary to specify the year when saying how far behind I am).

There is an interesting article in Dr. Dobbs, by Scott Ambler, regarding methods of estimating costs of software development, and whether the typical, fixed price model is even ethical. (More)

Solve:

Problem 1: If you have 100 gallons of water entering a 10 gallon sink with a partially clogged drain at 4 gallons per minute, how long will it take for the water to spill over the top and how many cardboard boxes get wet?  Extra credit: how many gallons of water will be left on the floor, assuming it doesn't all go down the floor drain?  Your answer should contain references to R (the occasional rest periods of the water filter), D (the distance from the sink to the drain), H (the height of the drain compared to the sink, hint: it is a positive number), S (the surface area of the basement), and T (the tools and other equipment in boxes not yet unpacked).

Problem 2: If the person who owns the equipment in problem 1 above installs shelving to raise the height of all of the stored equipment, will he be able to protect all of the tools from future damage?

Problem 3: Essay question: Why should you never leave a rubber glove drying on the edge of a sink?