Eulogy
My mother, Frances was a very passionate person. She was passionate about her work, her research, her friends and family. Frances never entered into anything half-way.

Frances was also a very unique and memorable person. She has a special place in our hearts, and will not be easily forgotten.

Frances was extremely kind and generous, often with George's money. She would go to great lengths to find the perfect gift, or even make the lives of others just a little more comfortable. She did this with no expectation of reward for herself.

It was not unknown for Frances to become friends with people she had only just met, and to provide them with support, advice, and anything she thought was required to give them happiness.

As a mother, Frances was passionate about ensuring that I had the best education and resources available to me. While this was sometimes frustrating when I would rather be playing games, dating girls, or drinking beer; Frances' encouragement and involvement is in many ways responsible for my continuing success as an adult.

However, my mother's passion for ensuring I had a good education didn't stop with me, but also extended to my friends. There have been many times when my friends had called and Frances had answered the phone. She would go to great lengths asking them about their assignments, their grades, exam timetables, lecturers, and other points of academic interest.

In fact, Frances would spend so long talking to my friends that she would then ask them to hang-up and then call back, so she could plausibly deny she had spent the last half-hour questioning them; instead she would pretend she allowed the call to go straight through to me.

My mother had another passion, and that was for humour. For as long as I can remember, Frances had a knack of creating mischief, sometimes for the amusement of others, but also for her own enjoyment.

One such time was when I was a boy. Along with my cousin, Blake, we had constructed a cubby-house from bricks, mud, and a large sheet of clear plastic. Being a mild evening, Blake and I insisted on sleeping in the cramped confines of our newly constructed abode.

We stayed up late scaring each other with horror stories, particularly ones of axe murderers climbing the fence to find us as we slept. Little did we know that Frances also had her own plans on how to scare us.

Late that night, my mother took a handful of dry macaroni, leaned out of a window, and tossed the pasta onto the roof of our cubby house. Being terrified that it was the axe-murderer, I spent the rest of the night awake, but too frightened to talk, or even move.

Later, in my teenage years, I demanded my independence, as youths of that age are apt to do. I was granted the use of the detached bungalow, giving me not only a room away from the house, but also my own front door and kitchen.

Of course, being independent had its own responsibilities. Whenever I forgot to do the washing, Frances would do it for me. Whenever she cooked dinner, she'd bring some down for me. And of course, whenever she even suspected I may have friends over, she would come down with large plates of food and hot drinks. Often this was so she could ask them how they were going with their exams, or ensure they weren't stopping me from finishing my assignments.

Everyone here has had Frances touch their lives in some way. On this day of reflection, I ask you this: Do not feel regret that Frances has gone, but instead feel joy that she has been part of your life. Do not feel sadness, but think instead of the happy memories she has left us. Do not feel remorse, but instead rejoice that Frances had a fulfilling life, and in the time before she passed away she was filled with hope, happiness and love.

Thank-you
I've had a great many kind people come out of the woodwork to offer their condolences and assistance after my mother passed away last Sunday. While I have not had the opportunity to respond to most of the kind words that have been sent to me, they are all very much appreciated. I am touched by the compassion of my friends and the community around me, and I am certain that my mother would be honoured by the incredible number of people who have expressed regret at her passing.

I was also sent a letter of condolence from a Nigerian scammer, who obviously got a copy of my 'out of office' message. That provided me with some amusement for the morning.

Tragedy
My mother was a regular reader of this journal. Not very long after each post she'd usually contact me with advice, questions, or to tell me that I've made errors. In many cases these 'errors' were just industry puns.

Unfortunately, my mother won't be calling me about this entry.

Yesterday, Frances Fenwick, my beloved mother, unexpectedly passed away.

Mom was going to pick us up for tea. We were to go to her house and help set up a new scanner, something she was looking forward to immensely. However, she never arrived, and never returned our calls.

We're not quite sure what happened, and mom is currently with the coroner. We think that it could have been asthma related, but it may have been a heart problem, or it could be something else entirely. At the moment we just don't know.

My father found mom on the kitchen floor when he returned from work Sunday afternoon. He attempted CPR, but by the time mom was found, it was too late.

My mother was in poor health for some years, but that never prevented her from getting about and doing what she wanted. Although she was unwell, none of us expected anything like this to happen. It's been a shock to myself, my father, and our family and friends.

The main project that my mother was working on was the George Collingridge Society website. My mother was passionate and inspired by her research, and I believe that she would have liked us to view her pages, even though they were not yet complete.

My mother will be sorely missed, and fondly remembered.

It's 3am...
And I've learnt a new scenario to add to the diaster recovery plan. What if it rains? What if it rains a lot?

We just discovered that when we have huge amounts of rain, combined with big fat hailstones, that something goes wrong in the roof adjoining the office and water gets in. Quite a lot of water. This could just be because the top of the gutters is flush with the bottom of the roof, and so if they overflow, water can get into the roof cavity. This area happens to be about the only area that doesn't have any eaves, so rather than the water running away or down the exterior walls, it gets onto the ceiling -- which in this area is lower than the rest of the house as well.

Other possibilities include broken tiles, bad valleys, or the solar hot-water service somehow making it easier to flood.

In any case, at 1am we performed an emergency removal of all gear from the area, which was mainly used for storage. Some books got damp, some old ISA network cards were sodden, and a couple of pentium-90s that should have been tossed years ago were drenched. Otherwise, no significant damage that we're aware of.

However, water in the roof cavity had another danger. Electrical problems. Something, somewhere, tripped the safety switch (earth leakage detector), disabling all appliances.

Our server dutifully switched to UPS, and then ate the battery and died while we were trying to locate the fault. That's very bad -- it's supposed to prepare itself for an emergency shutdown, and proceed with it if power is not restored in a timely fashion, or if the battery goes low.

We discovered that isolating the front-half of the property allowed us to restore power to the office. We also discovered that a light fitting in the watery area was shorting, producing a distinctive smell of ozone and a very disturbing noise.

Cut the lights at the circuit-breaker, tested the light to see if it was hot (temperature or current), tested a few times in different places (using the back of one's hand), and proceeded to remove the light. We're going to wait until everything dries out before we try to turn it back on.

Powered back on our server, it grumbled but started. One of the drives complained hugely during RAID re-sync. I dropped a job into RT that it should be removed from the array and the fresh reserve drive (already sitting in the machine) added in.

Sure enough, 70% into the reconstruction, the flakey drive reported a bad sector and was dropped from the array. I checked our backups were good, and initiated reconstruction with the fresh drive installed for this purpose.

Throughout this, there was much cursing of IDE drive manufacturers who produce such poor quality drives. It's a real shame when a '3 year warranty' means it can be almost guaranteed I'll be returning the drive to them after 18 months.

I really should be moving to SCSI. Sure, they're much more expensive, but the reliability is worth it. I've got much better things to do with my time than monkey around with poor hardware.

Drive reconstruction ends in about an hour. Hopefully we won't see any more issues.

Garden Maintenance
Apparently one can be legally obliged to mow one's lawn. During/after the honeymoon and many days of spring rains and good weather, the grass in the front yard was starting to get a bit long. What was surprising was a notice served by the council that we were required to reduce its length for fire protection purposes, or face a fine and/or a jail sentance. Yikes!
The grass is now cut.

Hints for businesses
When responding to written correspondence from your clients, try not to refer to the training co-ordinator as 'the girl'. This is especially important when said training co-ordinator is the one ultimately responsible in determining whether or not your client decides to pay for your services for the remainder of the year, and hence has a direct impact upon your bottom line.

Weight
I lost about three kilos from the last time I checked. I'm not chubby, but I've found my belt tighter than I would have preferred sometimes, so losing weight is good. I put it down to stress more than good exercise habits.