Sometimes, it’s the little things that seem the most complex. Consider filling your tank in a foreign country. It can’t be all that hard — it’s all gas, isn’t it? Well, yes — and no.
Last year, we visited Italy. As usual, we rented a car and drove all over the countryside. Italy is a truly beautiful country.
When it was time to fill the gas tank, things got a little interesting. At the filling station, there was a pump labeled Regular. It sounded like regular gas to me. Unfortunately, the nozzle wouldn’t fit into the gas tank opening. I figured I had the wrong type of gas, but which one was the right one? There was another pump labeled Diesel, that did not sound like a good idea at all.
The only remaining pump was labeled Senza piombo. What could that be? Senza piombo … sans plumbum … without lead … unleaded! Could it be unleaded gas? Maybe it’s some wierd diesel mix? Well, it’s a rental, give it a try! The nozzle fit and there no thick black smoke from the tailpipe. Was it luck?
I guess some of that French and chemistry in junior high school sunk in. I’m a firm believer in importance of learning fundamentals. Sure, long division is not fun to do by hand, but there are good reason to learn it.
Apache web server is awesome! I just added URL rewriting which makes URLs look the way you want. Load balancing is also a nice feature.
All this and it’s free! It’s hard to beat…
Flights are great places to meet interesting people. Yesterday, I was sitting next to an actual Tuskegee airman! He was a Washington, DC native and had wonderful stories of the city in the old days. He talked about dirt roads in DC (it wasn’t always paved!) and large canopies of trees that have since been cleared. It made the two hour flight much shorter.
The trainer used during WWII was a Stearman, a single engine tail dragger. There weren’t many opportunities for pilots after the war, so many left the military. We talked quite a bit about flying, what else would pilots talk about?
The Tuskegee airmen were recently honored for their service during world war II. As many are aware, they were not given the credit they were due years ago. Even though they were officers, some were even court martialed for entering officer facilities! From what I was told, the movie was an accurate depiction of the times.
If you haven’t guessed, I just installed WordPress. I didn’t time it, but the install could not have taken more than five minutes claimed by the instructions. All I can say is that there are some really, really good developers out there that understand the meaning of quality.
WordPress was recommended to me by Shahid Shah.