Author Archives: Jim Vanderveen

About Jim Vanderveen

I'm a bit of a Renaissance man, with far too many hobbies for my free time! But more important than any hobby is my family. My proudest accomplishment has been raising some great kids! And somehow convincing my wife to put up with me since 1988. ;)

Caroline arrives next week!

Posted on 2008-07-26 by Jim Vanderveen

[Caroline][]’s flight is scheduled to arrive next Friday evening at 19:53, and we’re all pretty excited. It’s almost like Christmas, except it’ll last three weeks! Several people have been asking us about hosting, how we found out about this, etc. … Continue reading →

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FreeBSD openssl-stable broken

Posted on 2008-06-04 by Jim Vanderveen

While upgrading some software on one of our [FreeBSD][] servers at work, I ran into the following problem with openssl-stable: # cd /usr/ports/security/openssl-stable # make clean ===> Cleaning for openssl-stable-0.9.7m # make ===> Extracting for openssl-stable-0.9.7m => No MD5 checksum … Continue reading →

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Aerial remodel photo

Posted on 2008-05-17 by Jim Vanderveen

Google Maps managed to snap an image of our house right in the middle of construction. Look closely at the lot in the center of this aerial photo of our house. You can see piles of lumber in our front … Continue reading →

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California “hands free” law

Posted on 2008-05-15 by Jim Vanderveen

California passed a “hands free” cellular phone law almost two years ago, but it hasn’t gone into effect yet. That’ll change on July 1, a little less than seven weeks from today. Neither my wife nor I have purchased a … Continue reading →

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Demolition party article in LA Times

Posted on 2008-05-14 by Jim Vanderveen

We were quoted in a [recent article in the Los Angeles Times](http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-re-demoparty11-2008may11,0,2980359.story). The author interviewed me a few months ago, but after the WSJ article I was hesitant to talk to another reporter. However, Michelle did a great job, didn’t … Continue reading →

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Ejecting stubborn Mac OSX disks

Posted on 2008-05-14 by Jim Vanderveen

I’ve been using a Mac for several years, and I’ve had in intermittent problem: about once or twice a year, a CD-ROM will get “stuck” in the drive. In the past, I’ve only been able to eject the CD by … Continue reading →

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Kyocera EP510DN printer

Posted on 2008-05-13 by Jim Vanderveen

We got a new [Kyocera][] printer at work a few days ago. The model we’re trying out is an “[EP510DN][]”. We had a heck of a time finding information for this printer on the Kyocera web site. In desperation, we … Continue reading →

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Apple “enchiladas”

Posted on 2008-05-10 by Jim Vanderveen

A few months ago we hosted a family gathering/dinner in our new kitchen. (Yes, a dozen of us spent pretty much the whole evening in or around the kitchen.) We were having El Paso-style enchiladas for dinner, and Barb wanted … Continue reading →

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We passed!

Posted on 2008-05-07 by Jim Vanderveen

We passed our final inspection on the first try! **WOO HOO!!!** Unfortunately we’re not yet finished with our remodel/addition. There are still a few items on the [punch list][], but the rest of the work is basically: * Telephone/network wiring … Continue reading →

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“Final” inspection today

Posted on 2008-05-06 by Jim Vanderveen

We have our “final” inspection on the house/addition today. I don’t expect that we’ll pass on the first try, since nobody else I know has been able to pull that off. The final inspection punch list is empty for now, … Continue reading →

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