I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

There's a euphoric kick, a quintessential moment of "YES!", that happens when I get a "high degree of coolness" technology working. It doesn't happen as often as it should, but when it does it lasts a long time.

I promised myself a notebook computer when I got the new job and much to my surprise I didn't procrastinate. I envisioned a home network where my Windows, Linux and Macintosh menagerie would seamlessly interoperate . After a year and a half of Java courses, whoring every webmaster job coming my way and getting the new job doing technical work I was burned out of the whole technology gig. I haven't used my PowerBook for much more than surfing the web, watching DVDs and a bit of word processing.

That's changing.

A Java practicum project has appeared and I thought it would be nice if that home network vision was a reality. After a bit of work I now have SSH public/private key single sign on between my Macintosh and Windows clients and my Linux server. I have a CVS repository on my Linux server that I can access over SSH from CVS programs on both my client computers. I also have a GUI program on each client that can transfer files in a style similar to FTP.

Doesn't sound like a big deal, maybe. But every time I click a button and one computer accesses another in a completely secure way without asking me for a password … I'm grinning like a fool just thinking about it. George Peppard in one of his TV roles said it best: "I love it when a plan comes together."

Books:
The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
The Ayre Affair - Jasper Fforde
The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde
Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde
Wings of Fire - Dale Brown
The Shiva Options - David Weber, Steven White

Movies:
Mystic River
Cheaper by the Dozen