micmath blog

I had a problem with some more recent Microsoft document formats not being recognized when downloaded from an Apache server. Ironically it was the IE 8 having the problem -- I think it was trying to be secure -- while FireFox knew what to do just fine. Any way, here's an .htaccess addition that will help our IE 8 friends out (with thanks to mcupples):

AddType application/vnd.ms-word.document.macroEnabled.12 .docm
AddType application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document docx
AddType application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.template dotx
AddType application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.template.macroEnabled.12 potm
AddType application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.template potx
AddType application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.addin.macroEnabled.12 ppam
AddType application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.slideshow.macroEnabled.12 ppsm
AddType application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.slideshow ppsx
AddType application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.presentation.macroEnabled.12 pptm
AddType application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation pptx
AddType application/vnd.ms-excel.addin.macroEnabled.12 xlam
AddType application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.binary.macroEnabled.12 xlsb
AddType application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.macroEnabled.12 xlsm
AddType application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet xlsx
AddType application/vnd.ms-excel.template.macroEnabled.12 xltm
AddType application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.template xltx

I remember sitting in the backseat of Gordie's mini-van as we drove across the 59th Street Bridge towards Manhattan while on the radio there was continuing coverage of the attack on the World Trade Center a few hours earlier. We continued into Midtown along with everyone else on the bridge and went about our business the rest of the day without any other sign that the great collective spirit of New York was so much as dented by these so-called terrorists. It would take hell of a lot more than that to break the stoicism of New Yorkers.

But that was 1993, and 8 years later I would find myself heading towards that same bridge once again, looking across the East River towards the Twin Towers, this time a long trail of gray smoke was surreally suspended in a perfectly blue sky, attached, it seemed, to the North Tower. As I watched, a gleaming silver airplane flew low over the skyline towards the South Tower.

For some reason, probably that New Yorker stoicism, I continued on into my office on West 14th Street. I still couldn't conceive of the idea that New York could be stopped. As I sat at my desk (at a cable television network) I listened to the news reports covering the events as they happened, in real-time, just a short distance from the building I was in. But I maintained an internal faith that the towers, and the people in them would be okay. This was New York afterall, we'd survived this sort of thing before. But for the first time in my adult life I experienced the very real feeling of shock which comes from seeing society itself falling down around you.

My outlook on life was permanently changed that day, damaged in some ways, encouraged in others. I'm not terrorized, I'm not spending today's anniversary filled with hate or anger. Gordie, my friend who drove us into Manhatten that day in 1993, would later learn his brother Edward Felt was murdered on Flight 93. He uses that word, murdered, with a deep sense of intention: his brother was not killed, he did not perish, he was not lost. I can't begin to relate to what Gordie is feeling about what happened that day.

I'm one of those who, when the question of how to rebuild was finally discussed, felt that we should rebuild the Twin Towers, girder by girder, window by window, exactly as it was before. I remember a cartoon in one New York newspaper that went further and suggested the new buildings should be in the shape of a hand, its middle finger raised defiantly towards the ocean. I think defiant is a good word to describe New York.

So I wonder, as an American, what am I supposed to feel today, should I be mournful, angry, scared? I don't feel any of those, though I am truly sad so many completely innocent and good people were murdered, their families left to bear the unbearable. But the truth is I have no right to insert myself in their mourning--by chance it wasn't me who was hurt, it wasn't my family that was left to wonder why their father, their mom, their brother won't be coming home any more.

Instead I choose to feel thankful. A few weeks after 9/11 I felt compelled to volunteer at a Red Cross station adjacent to the still smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center. This was a station for the firefighters, police and other workers who were still searching through the wreckage, looking for the pieces of the bodies of their missing comrades. I didn't do much, I spent the afternoon cleaning the showers and distributing drawings children had sent to the Red Cross. Many of those haunted-looking men spent 24 hours a day on-site, refusing to leave while their buddies were still under the fallen buildings. The Red Cross was there to make sure they had a small bit of comfort, a warm meal, a blanket when they were too tired to carry on. So I choose today, and on every 9/11 anniversary, to be thankful that in the face of the most appalling atrocities, the most frightening violence and disaster, there are men and women who are willing to run towards the fire, the flood, the attack, and give whatever aid they can, to risk their lives to help ordinary strangers. To me that is the very definition of a hero and I truly am grateful such people exist.

I'm donating a little money to the Red Cross fund today and I'd suggest that today is the perfect day for each of us to take a moment and ask ourselves what can we can do to help those who are willing to risk their lives to help us when we most need it.

• The American RedCross
• Participate in The National Day of Service

Last year I partitioned the hard drive on my PC laptop so I could install Kubuntu and have it dual boot. It worked quite well except for the fact that there was an extra step for everyone in the family (none of whom have any interest in Linux) every time they turned on the computer: they had to choose the WindowsXP option from the menu presented by the GRUB loader. The fact is I almost always prefer to use my Mac OSX anyway so, from their point of view, I had made their all lives a teensy bit harder for no good reason.

Then they ran out of room. The 30 GB I had left them for their Windows partition was quickly filled to the brim with iTunes music and family photos. I've been using Sun's VirtualBox application at work and was so impressed I decided I would delete that mostly unused Linux partition and install Kubuntu on a virtual hard drive instead. I'd free up a lot of disk space and make logging in easier for everyone in the bargain; you'd expect me to be a family hero, right? The family looked dubious.

Frankly no one seemed even a little surprised when I announced a short while later that I had--once again--rendered the PC completely unusable. "Uh, we do have backups of those photos from Molly's birthday party right?" "Um, I think so... do we?"

The problem was I'd deleted the Linux partition but didn't tell the GRUB about it. This made it impossible to boot the computer. Not a time to panic: the truth is I'd been in this sort of situation more times than I'd care to admit, and there is always a way out, if you just google it hard enough.

Answer: Super Grub Disk. I downloaded the iso file from the website onto my Mac, burned that to a CD using the built-in Mac Disk Utility tool, popped that CD into my PC and restarted. I was presented with a list of options, one of which was to rebuild the WindowsXP master boot record (MBR). No, I don't know what a MBR is, how do you think I got myself in this situation in the first place, all I know is Windows is rather unhappy without one. Anyway, now that the MBR was, um, mastered again, the old laptop booted right up! Even after all that I'm still not the family hero though. Weird.