Well, had to start using ACAD Civil3d today and boy was it lagging after I click anything.  I turned on the Task Manager to watch the CPU and when I just hovered the mouse over an item, the CPU was about 10%.  When I clicked on the item, the CPU spiked to 50%!

The solution?  Well, there may be many, but what helped me was simply closing the properties window.  Yeah... really simple thing to do, though I know it is a helpful thing to have open.  But when I had the properties window open, every time I selected an item(s), the computer would lag for a second or two.  When I closed the properties window, the lag disappeared.

One of my pet peeves is the whole Noah's Ark story and people thinking god commanded Noah to get one pair of every animal.  God actually commands Noah to get seven pair of the clean animals and one pair of the unclean animals.   But I noticed today that god actually commands both, with the one pair command in Genesis 6 and the seven pair/one pair in Genesis 7.

If I was Noah, I would have lost my mind.  Just think.  You've cruised around the world getting one pair of every animal, following god's command to the letter (from Genesis 6).  Then seven days prior to the flood you are made aware of a holy change order that will require you to go back out and get six more pairs of the clean animals.

God:  Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I wil....

Noah: Woah, woah, what was that?

God: What was what?

Noah: Did you say seven pair?

God: Yeah, of the clean animals.

Noah: Last year you said one pair of all the animals.

God: Oh, I changed the specs.

Noah: When?

God: Didn't you get the memo?

Noah: Wha?

God: Well, you need to get seven pair total of the clean type by next week.

Noah: That's not possible.

God: Through me, all things are possible.

Noah: The *$&# it is.

I learned today about the horrific Civil War prisoner of war camp located in Andersonville, Georgia.   Over a quarter of Union prisoners of war died at the camp.

I learned today about Fracosaurus, the children friendly dinosaur to explain how great deep shale fracking is for the planet.   Granted, the fear of fracking is extremely oversold, with the real environmental danger being how well the wells are sealed off (and that companies aren't required to do environmental baselines prior to installing a well to establish conditions prior to installing a well).

However, the coloring book (the link to the PDF is from the same news site link) looks more like an Onion spoof on what a gas well company would produce, not what the gas well company actually created. You can file that under Poe.  Based on the coloring book, it would seem like an environmental crime not to frack in deep shales.

I wonder if Fracosaurus knows Puff the Magic Dragon or Barney the Dinosaur.

I learned that Alewife is a type of trout.  I always remember Alewife being the last stop on the Red Line in Boston.  Now I know that there must be a large fish at the end of the Red Line in Boston.

Apparently there is a movement to stop using Pi of 3.14 and instead use a Tau of 6.28 or the equivalent of 2*Pi.  Other than the textbook headache, it sounds like an interesting idea.

link

Alright, this is a little embarrassing.  In Excel I use the Formating tool a bunch for setting custom formats or adjusting precision.  I just learned today that there is a Formating tool in the Home tab of Excel, where as, I don't need to right click, select Format Cells, go to the Number Tab and then insert my formating.

There is a small button that would take me there right off the bat in the Home Tab, and a pull down menu to change the generic formatting and other buttons to adjust the precision.

Color me embarrassed for not noticing for a few years.

I learned about what is called an "Omega Block".  It is a meteorological term about a massive high pressure system that settles in the center of the nation and is flanked by a pair of lows on the east and west coast.  The national system looks like a capital omega, a Greek letter.  I'm actually a bit surprised I hadn't heard of the term before.

Omega Block

So, you go to open a file in Civil3D... only to find that the file open dialog box doesn't open.  Instead, it asks you to enter the file name manually.  Now, in the good old days, that'd be possible.  C:\CAD\filename.dwg.

These days the directories are a tad bit longer.  S:\department\civil\project\2011\etc...\filename.dwg Makes manually entering a bit of a hassle.   So what gives?  Why isn't it showing the dialog box?

The answer is that somehow the Filedia value became 0 instead of 1.   Who knows how?

To fix this, enter the command filedia and when it prompts you to enter a value (it should say the current value is 0), enter a value of 1.   Then try to open a file.  The dialog box should open and all should be right with the world, for at least a moment.

Watched the movie Hobson's Choice and looked it up for more info about the movie.  Then I learned about "Hobson's Choice".  It is typically a situation where the person has only a single option to choose from, a take it or leave it.  Much like Laughton's character in the movie.