Events

I'm looking for community input. Mostly because of business travel, but also because I have signed up for almost every reward program that American Airlines offers, this year I expect to earn around 200,000 frequent-flyer miles. I need to spend them. And when best to spend them then off-season, in late November or early December, when people aren't traveling much? But where to go? American and its partner oneworld carriers fly non-stop from Chicago to about 95 destinations, ranging in distance from...

What happens when two air conditioners together draw more than 15 amps on a 15-amp circuit? This: (Click to see full-size.) The graph not only shows how quickly the place warmed up when the breaker tripped Wednesday evening, but also how slowly it cooled off once I closed the breaker. The initial cliff-like dive in temperature yesterday at 5:15pm happened because after turning the AC back on, I put a box fan next to the server rack and shut down two of the servers. You can see the temperature bumped up...

It appears the air conditioners back at IDTWHQ have failed, while I'm 1,700 km away: The chart starts at 7pm Chicago time Tuesday. The squiggle shows the backup air conditioner cycling on and off while it's in "energy saving" mode. That stops around 2pm yesterday, when, I imagine, the backup failed. Then, at 8:30pm last night, the main seems to have stopped. I'll be leaving San Antonio on an earlier flight. I just hope the A/C units have simply stopped, and that they'll start again when I turn them on....

Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the boilerplate: /* * Copyright (c) 1995, 2008, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. * * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions * are met: * * - Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. * * - Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright * notice...

Chicago has seen its hottest temperatures in years this week, with more coming today: Not since July 24, 2005 when O'Hare hit 39°C and a reading of 40°C occurred at Midway, has a triple-digit [Fahrenheit] reading occurred at the city's two observation sites. The entire 83 year observational record at Midway includes only 84 38°C or higher temperatures—and just 26 have occurred in the nearly half-century period since 1960. Good thing I'm not in Chicago this week. No, I'm in San Antonio, where the...

Because only in the United States do we have, enshrined in our basic law, the right to establish a city populated exclusively by religious nutters: Kiryas Joel is an enclave of ultra-orthodox Jews who belong to the Satmar Hasidic sect. Members of this group believe in separating themselves from others – they’d rather not be around non-sect members. Thirty-four years ago, they won the right to create their own village from the surrounding community of Monroe. The village’s founders might have envisioned...

The Khas Mahal, Delhi, India: 30 January 2011, Canon 20D at ISO-1600, 1/125 at f/5.6, 18mm, here.

The Daily Parker may miss a couple Photos of the Day over the next week or two as I'm ramping up a new project. I've got a few photos in the queue for the feature, but it takes time to find them, edit them, and post them, time I won't have lots of until probably the end of July. Here, however, is Four Courts, Dublin: 22 June 2008, Canon 20D at ISO-100, 1/125 at f/8, 18mm, here.

Whiting, Vt.: 17 October 1992, Canon T-90, Kodachrome 64, exposure unrecorded, here.

Last one (I think) from Pittsburgh, from the Duquense Incline, inside the machinery room: 9 July 2011, ISO-100, 1/320 at f/5.6, 18mm, here.