I got time for Christmas. I used it unusually wisely.

Most of yesterday and today I've worked on the next release of the Lambert House database and oh by the way web app.

Why would I want to do such a silly thing when I just deployed the previous release? Well:

• Herr Direktor Ken wants better security & auditing. Given what he's told me, I don't blame him.
• He also wants fancy-dance queries so that getting the data that funding agencies, particularly the city of Seattle, ask for won't burn so much of his and other paid staffers' time. Their requirements are likely to change in the near future, too, says Ken.
• Microsoft Access? Seriously? It's expensive, it requires a license per box, and I know it just can't do much of what Ken wants without some serious system administration if at all.
• I'm probably the only volunteer crazy enough to work with Access, however reluctantly. Moving to newer technologies makes me eminently replaceable.
• It's fun as shit.

So far, I've got the schema set up in MySQL and a snapshot of the data from a few weeks ago migrated over. I have one of the ten pages mostly working using Sinatra & ERB templates. This is my first Ruby project ever. To quote the Bride from Kill Bill, now for the easy part.

My apartment building with tail fins.

Durning Nibs' annual Jews' & Muslims' Chinese Christmas dinner*, I picked up the following factoid from Nibscousin: toilets, especially older ones, have the date of manufacture stamped on the inside of the tank lid. Mine says 12/19/56. I can be reasonable certain that my apartment building was completed in 1957 or '58. I'd been wondering that ever since I moved in.

Now what is the name for the random-ish orthogonal pattern of sandstone on the outside of my building? It was popular in the fifties, having apparently gotten its start from Frank Lloyd Wright. Google isn't helping me much.


*The Muslims had other plans this year. Too bad.