With MySQL installed, I compiled PHP, the extremely practical server-side scripting language I use heavily. With PHP built, I compiled Apache, the bum-whapping free Web server that powers the majority of sites on the Web. Compiling was successful, but execution of the resulting program was not. Guessing that this was due to an OpenBSD idiosyncrasy of pthread compilation — the MySQL library employs pthreads, but PHP and Apache don't — I added the '-pthread' argument to the compiler when building PHP and Apache, and it worked!

Lunch at Charlie's Place with the Olin computing crew: Big D, the Frog, Tim, and Joe. They're all sharp and have interests other than computers, and conversation always takes unexpected (to me) turns. Then, in a pleasant confluence of past and present that reminded me just how long I've been at CWRU, Good Nathan (who'd been my “intro to computer science” recitation leader two years ago) got to meet Dave (who'd lived in an adjoining room in my dorm two years ago). They'd heard of each other, probably from me, but had never met. Does that make me a matchmaker or a puppeteer?

I installed another new computer at the Children's Museum, and applied the latest Windows patches from Microsoft to several machines. The computer being replaced, enraged, bit my thumb and drew blood. This prevented me from doing what I would normally do when walking home across campus. I have enough trouble playing properly with all digits in working order.

On the way back from United Dairy Farmers, purveyors of fine ice cream and malt beverages of the old-fashioned kind, Frank was pulled over by a cop. Driving through Cleveland Heights is risky, but Frank seems to run into even more than his fair share of overzealous officers. The cop took his sweet time walking up to the car (allowing us ample time to consider what might have been done wrong), then asked Frank the standard questions. As it turned out, the problem was that his car did not properly illuminate the rear license plate. Why don't cops just tell you there's a minor problem? Whence the tiny power trip? Being a Cleveland Heights police officer must not be very fulfilling.