Sunday 29 October 2006

Following up on the viaduct and the leaves

The weather this weekend has obviously helped the CTA immensely. Already by 9 this morning they had almost completed the Church St. viaduct replacement:
David Braverman, Sunday 29 October 2006 15:38:16 UTC
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Today's Daily Parker (Bonus Weekend Edition)

Parker and Jackson got a good workout yesterday.
David Braverman, Sunday 29 October 2006 15:33:39 UTC
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FoxTrot gets political

In today's FoxTrot strip, Jason reveals a truly scary Hallowe'en costume. (The strip is now shown as Flash so I can't steal post it here for you. I'll update the link tomorrow.)

David Braverman, Sunday 29 October 2006 12:34:39 UTC
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 Saturday 28 October 2006

Bridge to nowhere

The CTA is replacing a 102-year-old viaduct in Evanston this weekend. I think the process is kind of cool. They started Friday evening and they'll finish Monday early in the morning, in time for the Purple Line to take people to work. I suppose it helps that they have an extra hour to work tonight.

This is the result of their first 15 hours or work:

David Braverman, Saturday 28 October 2006 21:00:52 UTC
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St. Louis in the news

Congratulations to Anne's home-town team, the St. Louis Cardinals, winning the World Series against the team that the Cubs last played for the same title. As a Cubs fan, I had some difficulty rooting for the Cardinals (the teams' rivalry goes back to the beginnings of professional baseball in the 1880s), but since the Tigers are in the American League I managed to do so.

Also of note to St. Louisians, it was on this day in 1965 that engineers completed the Gateway Arch.

David Braverman, Saturday 28 October 2006 16:23:35 UTC
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Latest sunrise for a while

Illinois changes to Standard Time at 2:00 tomorrow morning, making today's 7:19 sunrise the latest until December 29th. Despite the cold, I trekked over to Dawes Park in Evanston to see it:

David Braverman, Saturday 28 October 2006 14:12:10 UTC
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 Friday 27 October 2006

Today's Daily Parker

We're trying an experiment. Parker is spending the whole day at Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters.

Also, just because this came out the way it did, I challenge both all of my readers to provide an appropriate thought balloon for the hardly-working office puppy:

David Braverman, Friday 27 October 2006 17:11:52 UTC
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Cintas intimidates its own employees

Cintas, a uniform company (they make and launder uniforms for nurses, security guards, etc.), has decided to follow a DHS proposal—it doesn't have the force of law—that encourages employers to fire workers who have Social Security-number mismatches or in other ways fail to re-verify that they are authorized to work in the U.S. The effect of this action will be to intimidate immigrant workers, legal or not, and help them keep their payroll costs down.

The thing is, this is none of the company's business. The affected workers may have legal problems with the IRS or with ICE, but for all practical purposes this doesn't affect the company one way or the other. I don't think Cintas can make a straight-faced claim that the legal status of a minimum-wage seamstress or launderer threatens their business. On the other hand, if their workers worry that in addition to having an expensive and frightening experience with Immigration they also might lose their jobs, they'll be a lot less likely to agitate for a living wage or safe working conditions.

One of my long-standing clients, a labor-rights organization, has documented so many of Cintas' anti-worker policies (starting with poverty wages) that this is really only the latest, not the worst. So if you ever have to rent uniforms for your business, don't use Cintas.

David Braverman, Friday 27 October 2006 00:27:30 UTC
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 Thursday 26 October 2006

It's autumn

Our ivy looks cool, so I thought I'd share.

David Braverman, Thursday 26 October 2006 16:49:09 UTC
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Today's Daily Parker

We have a routine. At 5:30 every morning, Parker dances on my head, and I shove him back to the foot of the bed. At 5:45, the alarm clock starts playing Morning Edition, and Parker dances on my head again. Flash forward to 6:30, and we're at the dog park, usually all three of us, where Parker has a tremendously fun time with all the other dogs.

Then we head back to the house. He's a pretty smart dog, and he can tell when we're getting ready for work. Sometimes Parker gets locked in the bedroom, but other times he comes to the office with me. I believe he has not only a strong preference, but also an understanding that not every day is an Office Puppy day:

David Braverman, Thursday 26 October 2006 13:15:48 UTC
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 Wednesday 25 October 2006

Today's Daily Parker

I've managed to stanch the bleeding from today's server crash, but sadly I only have enough brain power left to phone in today's Daily Parker. This "Flying Nun" look is awfully cute, though:

David Braverman, Wednesday 25 October 2006 22:30:02 UTC
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Software fall down, go boom

I am not happy today.

My company's Exchange server, which handles all of our email, crashed in a maddening fashion. Apparently the server's security database got damaged when the server rebooted after a critical update. The only way to fix it is to rebuild the server. This requires building another server first, so that our Websites don't go down in the interim. It's going to take us probably three days to fix the problem, partially because we've got client work to deliver before we can really care about the email outage.

In related news, I'm reading a new book:

David Braverman, Wednesday 25 October 2006 16:43:23 UTC
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 Tuesday 24 October 2006

Today's Daily Parker

The dog is criminally adorable. During Studio 60 last night, first he helped with the laundry:
David Braverman, Tuesday 24 October 2006 12:59:39 UTC
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 Monday 23 October 2006

Today's Daily Parker

Wow, did we have an exhausting weekend. Anne had to go out of town, so Parker and I had a "boys night out" with one of my business partners. Only, when my colleague and I first planned to get together over beer and ribs (our traditional "BNO" activity), he had completely forgotten about the pumpkin-carving party at his home.
David Braverman, Monday 23 October 2006 13:26:55 UTC
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