Sunday, September 21, 2008

Sad goodbye


At FMI this past Friday, they mourned the decommissioning of their VAX computer system. After 21 years of faithful service, faster systems replaced the old VAX. Memories were shared, champagne was served, and a few tears were shed.

A VAX was one of my first mainframe computers at the Earth Resources Laboratory at M.I.T., at the University of Washington, and at SUNY Albany. I remember learning UNIX, which I thought was less intuitive at first relative to the operating system of the VAX. I made a translation table so that I could remember to translate VAX commands into UNIX.

(Image by unessani.ajatukseni.net)

Happy Birthday to the Finnish Blues Society!


This past Friday was the 40th birthday of the Finnish Blues Society. They put on a great show. The music was a who's who of Finnish Blues legends. All different styles. My personal favorite was Knucklebone Oscar, who looked like a thin Jack Black from the movie School of Rock. Knucklebone rocked out like Jack, as well. Truly crazy man. I am sure a full show by this madman would be quite the experience.

Three environments that do not go together


On recent flights on Finnair, I see them advertise the following cream. Marine Biology, Prairie, and Switzerland do not go together, in my opinion. Can anyone explain this to me?