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very logical risk assessment Friday, February 3 2006
I've been working on a remote development job for the past month and it features a number of interesting traits, the strangest of which is the fact that it is built on txtSQL, a PHP-based SQL emulator. But as a level of abstraction, txtSQL holds up remarkably well. Today I was easily able to write two scripts that automate the entering of data into its "database" from Excel spreadsheets. The format of the second such spreadsheet wasn't even designed to be read by machines, and yet it was easily slurped up by my script and turned into 742 tows of data. Such large quantities of data exposed a weakness in my general-purpose SQL front end tool (which I'd been bragging about a week and or so ago). In cases where there is a massive table referenced by a foreign key in the table of an item being edited, my tool generates a similarly-massive dropdown list. Somehow I have to figure out a general way for my tool to break such dropdowns into a two-stage select process. A perfect example of this would be the case of someone picking a city from a dropdown list when adding their "member information" to a database. If my tool were as smart as a mid-level PHP developer, it would note that there were a gajillion cities in its city table and it would break the selection process into two stages, the first being for state/country, and the second being for city.
Buster continued his integration into our family today. His acclimation seemed nearly complete, in that he seemed comfortable hanging out in most places throughout the house and he was no longer growling every time he caught sight of a dog. But his behavior towards the other cats seems creepy and psychopathic. Whenever he sees one of the other cats, he is irresistibly drawn towards him. He will sneak up to him all cool and casual and then finally leap upon him with what appears to be murderous intent. Buster's claws are clipped, but there's nothing we can do about his bite. After assaulting Julius tonight, Buster had a tuft of striped hair stuck to his lower lip.
Julius, by the way, is the only of our cats who isn't completely terrified of Buster. He's willing to hang out in the same room with him and can even feign an appearance of being relaxed and distracted. The other cats, even the usually too-cool-for-school Clarence, clear out of any room into which Buster enters, sort of like Mormon missionaries when they see a black man walking toward them on the sidewalk. Unlike the missionaries, however, our cats seem to be behaving out of a very logical risk assessment based on Buster's specific personality and recent history.
Sally keeps an eye on Buster from the stairs up to the teevee room.
Julius playing it cool in the teevee room with Gretchen. Notice the permanent spot on the floor, the result of some spilled beverage.
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