You know how I can tell we are getting carried away when it comes to terror? This article in the Times Picayunne about a package found in the Men's restroom at 4 in the afternoon yesterday:
The concourses were reopened about 9:30 p.m. after officials used a water cannon on the package, which was still in the bathroom, then opened it to reveal seafood gumbo.
Terror is real. Terror is, yes, terrifying. Unfortunatly, because of this, we tend to overreact to it.
Here's a gallary my mom would love.
From an article in today's paper about what makes a better athelete: Quite simply, love what you do. They give this advice to people who are looking to be "successful" at whatever their weekend sport is.
I've been thinking a lot about happiness and success and making a living. And about how they are interrelated. I've come accross an amazing number of people who seem to be uninterested in what their work is. They hate going to work, or at least they feel powerless — unable to escape the treadmill they really would rather not be on.
These people have developed a sense that they cannot do what they love. Instead, they've sacrificed their interests at the alter of Mammon, and for the sake of money, they hate their job.
Now, I'm not suggesting that work is always fun for me. But, overall, I'm involved in activities that I love to do. I'm working at things I, generally, enjoy doing. I don't hate my job.
I do tend to be a little obsessive. I go home, and, after putting the kids to sleep, I'll end up doing more of the same stuff. Playing with Operating Systems, programming a small project, geeking out with a new piece of software. My hobby looks very similar to my work.
There are others who's avocation is practically the same as their vocation. But, far too many people have seen money as the goal, instead of joy, happiness, and contentment. And unscrupulous people have exploited that by creating jobs without meaning. These unscrupulous few have been deceived themselves. They're the ones who made Enron tank — because their goal was money, not joy.
How to test memory on Linux when you think you have a problem:
If you've removed the faulty memory module, then this should all work (and your system should start swapping like crazy.) I've got 2 DDR SIMMS for a total of 512MB, so removing one gives me 256MB. It takes a bit to fill all that up. If the faulty module is still in the system, your compile will surely fail and other programs may have a hard time starting up or may crash (because, if nothing else, they create temp files).
Put the memory module back in to verify the eratic behavior and positively identify the faulty memory.
In my case, it seems that the SIMMS weren't seated properly. This particular motherboard seems to have that problem a lot.