Software pleasantry.

One of the entertaining things with open-source software projects is the process whereby I find one that sounds interesting, have a look at it and download a copy, decide that it's way too early in the beta stages to deal with, and then forget about it for a couple of years. And then I rediscover it, and suddenly it's all improved and working.

This happened recently with the TortoiseSVN version-control client. I'd downloaded a copy a year or two ago, when I was looking at version control systems, but at the time it was in version 0.17, and seemed a lot of bother to poke at. Then, a few months ago, the newly-hired computer person in our research group at work suggested it, and I find that it's in a 1.1 release and "just works" -- painless install, and very simple and convenient.

That's sort of a digression, though, from what really prompted this post. What prompted this post is sort of a long story, stretching over more than a decade.

( And, being a long story, it gets a cut-tag. )

Software pleasantry.

One of the entertaining things with open-source software projects is the process whereby I find one that sounds interesting, have a look at it and download a copy, decide that it's way too early in the beta stages to deal with, and then forget about it for a couple of years. And then I rediscover it, and suddenly it's all improved and working.

This happened recently with the TortoiseSVN version-control client. I'd downloaded a copy a year or two ago, when I was looking at version control systems, but at the time it was in version 0.17, and seemed a lot of bother to poke at. Then, a few months ago, the newly-hired computer person in our research group at work suggested it, and I find that it's in a 1.1 release and "just works" -- painless install, and very simple and convenient.

That's sort of a digression, though, from what really prompted this post. What prompted this post is sort of a long story, stretching over more than a decade.

( And, being a long story, it gets a cut-tag. )

Yummy goodness.

One third of a pound of very fresh shrimp from The Fish Market, peeled. The shrimp washed, patted dry, and sprinkled generously with fine-ground pepper and salt. A pat of butter in a small nonstick frying pan, the pan heated until the butter just begins to brown, and then the shrimp added and tossed around with a pair of spoons for exactly two minutes.

The flavor: almost perfect.

(And all for under three dollars, too.)

Yummy goodness.

One third of a pound of very fresh shrimp from The Fish Market, peeled. The shrimp washed, patted dry, and sprinkled generously with fine-ground pepper and salt. A pat of butter in a small nonstick frying pan, the pan heated until the butter just begins to brown, and then the shrimp added and tossed around with a pair of spoons for exactly two minutes.

The flavor: almost perfect.

(And all for under three dollars, too.)