Short Comments/Blurbs/Ed Doesn't Have Enough Time

1) I read in baby books that a child will grow and change in a surprisingly short period, but I had no idea.

2) It is important that fathers and sons find a hobby they can enjoy together.


3) This is my sister, the great Gretchonzo. She and Henry got along swimmingly.

4) This takes a bit of explaining. Here in Houston there are many iced cream shops that sell ice cream with fruis/nuts/cookies/candy stirred in at the shop atop a large, cold marble slab. These stirred in bits are collectively known as "crushins." We frequent a shop which has a very small size of iced cream cup, so small in fact that these crushins can't be added. Hence the sign.
5) A buddy of mine, one of the most talented scientists I know, is leaving the field. He got a job at an Oil Company developing new ways to model thermal properties of oil trapped in sand. He gets LOTS of computers and LOTS of money. Nice job, Kostya.

6) I had to reinstall my old desktop computer. I tried to reinstall Windows XP from an old disc (SP1), and it was a mess. (Specifically, I didn't have drivers for my Ethernet controller, so it would have become a huge pain to download drivers on one machine and install on the desktop.) I said OK, the computer is a paper weight at this point, so I installed Linux (Ubuntu 8.04). It just worked. Out of the box, everything worked, including a NetGear wireless USB connector. (By the way, those sticks are so awful that if someone tries to give it to you, punch them.) I was stunned and impressed. Assuming "Wine" (the Window's emulator) gets better so I could run games, I could really see having no Windows Box in my home. That said, Open Office is still so awful as to be embarrassing.