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2002.10.14 @ 04:58 PM CDT
(Monday, October 14th, 2002)
First off, it has been a while (several months since I updated), and I have
been kinda busy... But more on that later....
A friend recently posted a link to this
speech transcript in his Live Journal, and I think more people should
read it. So go have a look. :-)
2002.07.07 @ 08:18 PM CDT
(Sunday, July 07th, 2002)
Found in /usr/games/fortune (displayed by work's mail server one day when I
logged in):
The entire work force of the Communist countries is subjected to periodic
purges (called verifications in Newspeak). One of the most severe took
place in 1957 when Novotny, rattled by the Hungarian Revolution the year
before, tried hard to weed out "radishes" (red outside, white inside) from
all but insignificant positions. Any one of the following would often
result in the loss of one's job: Bourgeois or Jewish family background,
relatives abroad, contacts with former capitalists, having lived in a
Western country, insufficient knowledge of Communist literature, and others.
A man is interviewed by a "Verification Committee."
"What kind of family do you come from?"
"A rich, Jewish family."
"And your wife?"
"A German aristocrat."
"Have you ever been to the West?"
"I spent most of my life in England."
"How did you make a living there?"
"A friend supported me."
"Where did you get the money from?"
"He owned a textile factory."
"Who was Lenin?"
"Never heard of him."
"What is your name?"
"Karl Marx."
So the other day I got the urge to try Sonic the Hedgehog in dgen (a Sega
Genesis emulator) on my laptop. I found that Debian's build of dgen likes
to be set-UID root to be able to initialize SVGAlib correctly.
When I first ran it as my normal user it wasn't able to do this and gave me
this at startup:
mcop warning: user defined signal handler found for SIG_PIPE, overriding
sdl: Couldn't open audio: Unable to initialize ARTS!
:ISi+|||| =##vI .....+=::::===- :n#X#S=
:v+|vSSZXX :ZiXQ .-:--:+-|iiiIvv+ -XXn|i#W=
-vI=+vSX|: :#i:Q .-:. =+-|:iiIvv+ vSvnZSi::=
+inSS||Z=#Zi:Q .-:. =+-|:iiI=v+ vSS|#|ZSS:W
vnSvnv|vZ=XZISW .-::-:+-|iiiI=v+|Sn+XZZZ:IS:Z
vnnnSSi|: :n:WW..-::-.:+|iiiIvvISS+X:#X##:::Qy
|
And here's the Sonic logo screen...
==nnnnnnnnnnnnnSvnnnnnnnnnnnSSSSXSXXXXXSSnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnSnnSnnnnSnnnnnnnnnnn
XXnnnnnnnnnnnnvnvnnnnnnnnnnnnvnnnnvSvSnnnvnnnnnnnnnnnnnnSSSSSXSSnSnnvnnnnnnnnnnn
vvvnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnvnvnnSSSnSnnnnnnnnnnnvnvnvvvvvvnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnSnnnSnnnvnvnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
nnSSSSSnv=::=|i|nnnnSvnnnnnnnnni|=-:||nSvXS#Xn:||innnnnnnnnnnnnn+i||::=:nnnnnnnn
nnnnvnnnnI=::::::::|||i|nnnn|=:InnnSnSnnnnnSXXii=:=|nnnn+I|||-:::::::+Innnnnnnnn
nnnnnnnnnnnn|-=:::::::::::--:=+|vnSnnnSSSnnSSXnnSni:::::::::::::::-iinnnnnnnnnnn
nnnnnnnnnnnnvii::-=::::::=--:=+:+SnSnSSX#SnSXSSS+|i+:--::::::::-=+i+nnnnnnnnnnnn
nnnnnnnSS#XS:v=:::::::::=-+++=:|IvnX#XSXXX#XXXSXv-=:=+:-::::::::::=#XZnnnnnSS#Xv
+v|viiI|IiI- ..--=:::::--==+=-IIIIXS:#Z#Z:ZSnXXXvI:++:+-:::::::--..iIIivIII. ..S
.. .... .+++. ...::=:=:-.+:=:+IIIivX##Z##ZZnIZXviI==+:+:-:::-::-. .. .. . . I
...---.-=IIi|III+==:::==-==++|+==v#######XS#:nI+==i|++|::==::-:.. .. . . . ..
+i:---.:::--+vII+=ii||=--++||+==+-::vIi|++i:=|=|==|=|--+++|i.+iv|++||+++|+++|+++
=|=:.---.:--:=|=+|+i=.=:i=+|||:+::+:i=|:|=:==+:|:=++|++:=:-.--:|i|i|||i|||i|||i|
|++:.-:.-+--:=:.:=|i-:=+|||||||=++=i||+++i|=+||++=i|i+||||=-==+=+++:+++:+++:+++:
+=-::-=i+--:::+|||++||||||||||:i==|++=+|+=++i==++=+|||||||||++|||:+++-=+===+-.-|
-:-====-|--+|.-=:::=+Ii|:=.+|.-::::+:-===-====:-.==-|--=|ii+=::::=.+|.:+|.=-|.--
:.. ::.-+=-=====+|iii=-::-..=:::=:.-=-+:=:.-|-..:..-:. -=|ii|+==+:.:=-=-:.. : .
. . .:-. ..=|+|:=:.. ..:-.-::=+. .. .:---. -:= . . . =-.:.-:=:==-.. .. . ..
. . .. . . .... . . . .:-.-==--.:.. .. .. . . :- -==-=::. -:... . . . .
-:::. .-- . .-::.-:.-::.-:=..:==.-:. -:.-::.-::- -==.-:.-=:-.-:. -+..:. -: -:=
-:.. .. . .. . . . . . . . . . --. . .. ...=-..:-.. .:+:--=+:++..:-+-::...
-. . .:. =. =. =:- .:-. :-:- .. .::-. :-. .:=- . :. =:-.. .=-. :.. =. ::
-- : - - - - : : : : . : : : :- - : . :. -
|
And here's the demo of the first level running...
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnSSSXZXXSXXSSnSvnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnvvvvvvvvnnnnSSSXZXXSXXSSnSvnn
nSSSnnv=viv|v=v|nnnnSnSvnvnv|:vnnnnnnnnnnnnnIvvnnvvvvIvvnnnnnnnnSnSvnvnvnvnnnnnn
vvvniiiiiiiii+nnnvnvvnnnnniinnnnnnnnnnnnvvivvIiIvv|ivvIvnnSnSSnSnnnnSSnnnnnnnn
|+nnnnnvvviIvvnn|=n+i=||nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnvvvvvvIIIvvvvvivinnnnnnSnZnnZvnZnnZnnZ
iinnnnvivInnviii+i+nnnI+nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnvvnvvvI:=iIIivnnInnnnnvnvSXXvnnSXXvnnS
nInnnnvvviivv|-| ..=vIn|nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnivvnv:=-|Ivinnnnnnnnnnnvvvnnvvvvvnvn
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn+- -+iinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnvvnn++nnnvnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
-InnnnnnnnnnnnnInnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn+|nnnnnnnZnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
:::SSS:SSvnnnnZZZnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnii|+nnnnZZZn|iXvnnnn#WSS:SSvnnnnnnnnnnnnQX
::- .III|Iiiv.. -nZnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnZSn+ii=nZSiIII.+--Iiiv.. .IvI||Ii|IIIv|Ii|.-.
... ... .. .. ..II|Ii++ii++iI+vS|IIIi|++::-+. .. +-. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .
nn . . . . . .-.--.. ++IvI+IIIv++=:::==. . .+-. . . . . . . . . .
|i|||||||||i||||i|++:.-:.-|IIIIIIIIIIi|=|=.-: . .=. .-:=. . . . . . -..: .
|+i||i|||i|||i|||i+i---:-:.--=iiI=I.=+|Ii|IIi=+=i=i||=+ii:.-- .-- .-- .---:::=--
:=++=+++=+++=+++=+++=::-:.+=|ivvvvIIIvIIIIIvIIIvIIvIIvvIIi::::::::::::::::::::::
:|..+i.=|+=.|+=.|+=.i+=:IvIvvIIIII++=+-+-:-+-:-+-::=:-:=:-|:=+=-=|=+:||+|=::++:=
:-.|. .|==|.=+|.=|i+IvvIvIIi==----------------------:------.=-.|. .|=:-=--:.=-.:
vI-: --:.--:=|IIvvIIvI||:-----:--::-:::=:::=:::=:::=::-----..--: --:.--:=:=.. ::
--. ... :+iivvIIvi++.::..::-:=:--::--:=--==::==::==::=:..-. -.. ... .... . .:-=
: :-+iIIvIIIi=+=:..-:-.::::==:.--------::::==::==::==: :.. -:. -:. .:. -: . . .-
.-vvvIII|=:-------::::::::::::----.-:.::=:::::::::::::----.:.. = . = . =. .:. -:
:.I|+=---:+=I+==.=::=:=:=:=:=:---..-..::::=:=:=:=:=:=:---. . . . . . . .. ..
..---.-- :-.:::-.:=:=:=:=:=::--:::::::=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=----:. --. -: -: .-: .-:.
.. .--..--..--..--..--..--..-...--..--..--..--..--..-. .
|
2002.06.06 @ 12:00 AM CDT
(Thursday, June 06th, 2002)
Sometimes old computer hardware and free software amuse me with their
ability to be stable:
[ jarehart@blackbox 00:10am ttyp4
~ ] $ uptime
12:10am up 202 days, 2:28, 6 users, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00
|
In other news I was reading about Apache's mod_rewrite in
doing some research to solve a customer problem at work. I found the quotes
at the top of the documentation page amusing:
"The great thing about mod_rewrite is it gives you all the configurability
and flexibility of Sendmail. The downside to mod_rewrite is that it gives
you all the configurability and flexibility of Sendmail."
-- Brian Behlendorf, Apache Group
"Despite the tons of examples and docs, mod_rewrite is voodoo. Damned cool
voodoo, but still voodoo."
-- Brian Moore, bem@news.cmc.net
|
Several week ago, while reading this story
at Plastic I found a couple of
comments I quite liked. They are #3
and #23.
Go read them. :-) He says things better and more humorously than I could
have.
And now that I've run through the queue of things to write about... Last
weekend was LGRL's Texas Pride Festival.
This was the sixth I've been to (one a year from 1996 to now). After I
finished the volunteering I was doing and another friend had visited the
booths he was interested in, we decided that we would meet two other friends
for food at Bennigan's. As we left there was much amusement. One of the four of us has
already commented
on it. :-)
2002.04.28 @ 05:00 AM CDT
(Sunday, April 28th, 2002)
In my web reading today, I came across this
article about spyware and anti-spyware. Reading through it, I was glad
that most of the time I'm using free / open source software. Stuff like
that just doesn't fly. :-) It seems to me that spyware-like behavior isn't
even on the minds of free / open source developers.
I say that I'm not usually using closed software, and yet here I am
installing Windows 98. My brother and I each recently bought a used Dell
Latitude XPi CD 166 laptop (Pentium 166 MMX, 64MB RAM, 800x600 LCD). I
moved the Linux install I had on my previous laptop (a 486 DX4/100) and
adjusted settings. Windows, however, is more difficult to clean up when it
changes owners, so I'm re-installing it on his laptop. :-)
So I'm at home one evening last week and I get a phone call from some random
person who is doing a survey. She asks if there are any female residents, to
which I replied that there aren't (I live alone). However, that got me to
thinking... "Hi, I'm doing a survey. May I speak to the man of the house?"
"Which one?" [OR] "Hi, I'm doing a survey. Mr. Arehart, are you married?"
"Yes" "Then, may I speak to Mrs. Arehart?" "There is no Mrs. Arehart here."
"Uhhhh..." :-) I suppose I'm just amused and surprised at the number of
people who think everyone is straight. Wait... I've ranted on that before,
haven't I? :-)
And after the amusing things, the rants....
I get too much spam e-mail these days. I know, who doesn't? Point taken.
However, I've become annoyed at the mail that says I received this message
because I opt-ed in to receive mail from them. Uhh... I don't fucking
think so. If I've never heard of said company before and/or the From:
e-mail address isn't valid; then I don't think there's any way this is
legitimate mail. I have in no way opt-ed in if you bought your list of
e-mail addresses from someone else. If I actually asked for information from
you directly and am expecting to get mail from you at some point, then OK.
Otherwise, it is un-solicited commercial e-mail (UCE, aka spam). I also don't care if you
actually take people off your distribution lists. You still spammed me to
begin with; though honoring remove requests does put you very slightly above
the rest.
Finally, we have a rant related to the last amusement from above... I keep
getting mailers from various dating/single's services. They're the kind
that get put in all the mailboxes at apartment complexes. They're all for
men seeking women or men seeking women. Hello! You're in Austin. Where's
the men seeking men and women seeking women options? :-)
2002.04.09 @ 03:04 AM CDT
(Tuesday, April 09th, 2002)
When you're already going say 75 miles/hour (20 - 25 miles/hour over the
speed limit) down the freeway in the left lane, its slightly annoying to
have people come up behind you and flash their headlights at you saying,
"move over!" If I was going the speed limit I'd understand some
impatience, but not when I'm that far over it. And, it is only worse, when
the vehicle doing this is a tour bus. Guh! *sigh*
On to more amusing stuff... Last week sometime a friend showed me parts of
the p-nand-q website. If you're at
all into computing and programming take a look. Some of it is amusing.
Some kinda scary. Lots of it cool. The programming languages
section especially. A different friend who was also present was given
some amusing ideas. We'll see if he acts upon any of them. :-)
Current music: Concrete Blonde - Joey
2002.03.26 @ 03:55 AM CST
(Tuesday, March 26th, 2002)
Tonight was good. I went to see Revolution OS at the Alamo Drafthouse here in Austin. The Austin Wireless Group as well as
the Austin Linux Users Group and
a few members from Austin 2600 were
in attendance. I was able to see this movie last spring (2001) at SXSW, so this time around I was able to
catch a few things I'd missed. I'm reminded that the whole thing is about
more than computers and software, and I regain some hope that the rest of
the world will catch on to some of the things (economically, socially,
environmentally) that we (as societies) are doing that aren't too healthy.
I'd try to elaborate a bit if I weren't also needing to go sleep. :-)
Before I go sleep, however... After the movie a couple of friends asked me
which scene was my favorite. I'd missed their discussion of it earlier, but
they were curious of my opinion. I've thought about it on and off since and
I'm still not sure which I'd pick. Maybe a list of a few? :-) The
intelligent discussion from Linus Torvalds, Eric Raymond (ESR), and Richard
Stallman (RMS) as to why they became involved in free software in their own ways.
I can't help but see a man who is interested in the continued ability for
the community of people using computers to be able to modify software to
work they way they need it to in RMS. For RMS the philosophy appears to go
further than software. And I think that is a good thing. :-) Back to
favorite scenes... I suppose the video from the 1999 San Jose LinuxWorld
with Linus and RMS on stage as RMS accepts the IDG/Linus Torvalds Open Source
Computing Award and Linus' children join him on stage. It's just too cute.
Ohh... I almost forgot; the trailer for War Games that the Alamo
played before the movie was great fun, but not a scene in the movie, so I
suppose I can't count it.
Current music: (singing along to) Matchbox 20 - Yourself Or Someone Like You
2002.03.11 @ 03:25 AM CST
(Monday, March 11th, 2002)
Before I go to sleep I have a few rants and raves...
One reason Mutt is a damn cool e-mail
program: it will read gzipped mailboxes. :-) I just did "mutt -f
arehartj.mail-23.gz" and it said, "decompressing mailbox..." and then gave me
a normal message listing. On quit, it re-compressed the mailbox, just as
you'd expect. And despite the fact that the compressed mailbox is 7.6 MB,
mutt only used about 6 MB of RAM while running (instead of the 20+ MB you
might guess given that the mailbox is compressed).
Well, I suppose it isn't really a rant... I was given a Microsoft Wireless
IntelliMouse Explorer this past holiday season by my aunt and uncle. It is
a pretty nice mouse, other than it is a Microsoft mouse. :-) I'd been
using it since several days after I got it. Being wireless it requires
batteries (two AA to be exact).
So about a week ago it started behaving erratically. It would either work
normally, or randomly miss clicks while not tracking my movements correctly
on screen. At first I thought this might be battery life related (I hadn't
replaced the batteries since I got it). So I bought new AA batteries and
installed them. This helped for about a day, or co-incidentally "helped"
for that long. Shortly after it went back to misbehaving. So I booted into
Windows (vs. Linux) and ran the "Wireless Troubleshooter" provided with the
Windows drivers for the mouse. It suggested two things that I thought might
be helpful. Change the channel on which the mouse and base station
communicate. And, have the mouse and base station re-establish basic
communication. I did both and was rewarded with about 30 seconds of good
response each time.
The annoying thing is that my computer's and mouse's setup didn't change
between working and non-working states. And because I need to be able to
work on my machine (abunai, the primary
workstation) I've switched back to my trusty two button serial mouse. :-)
The last bit I'd like to mention is that I've finally gone about getting two
of my domains to a usable state. I don't have them added to any web server
configuration yet, so they're still not reachable, but I'd like input from
anyone reading as to what I might do with them. They are oshititsdown.com and pinkgorilla.net.
I was thinking that I'd use oshititsdown.com as a place for people to post
stories of tech problems that were difficult and/or amusing to solve. As
in, they'd contribute the story and the solution. I have several I could
start things off with.
For pinkgorilla.net I'd been thinking I could consolidate much of the
publically and non-publically available information (and links) regarding
the Pinky's Wireless network in once
place, though that which isn't publically available, wouldn't become such.
If you have other ideas or comments about either domain, send me mail (my
address is at the bottom of the page).
Current music: Third Eye Blind - Blue
2002.02.28 @ 02:45 AM CST
(Thursday, February 28th, 2002)
Work with Mach 10 is going
pretty well for me having been there a month. I still have new things to
learn and new problems to help solve; which keeps me from being bored.
And when I'm bored in a job, it usually isn't a good thing. It isn't
necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't good either. :-)
I have, yet again, found a cool group of people with whom to work. One day
the owner of Mach 10 (there are three people in the company) asked me why I
wear freedom triangles (a necklace with small metal triangles in the colors
of the gay, lesbian, bisexual freedom flag) all the time. He went on to say
that with him and his friends, my sexuality wasn't an issue. I knew that
already, otherwise I wouldn't have taken the job, but I could see why he
would wonder.
It took me a second to re-formulate the reasoning. I replied to his
question, saying that my wearing the necklace all the time is an awareness
thing. Most of the "rest of the world" (from my perspective) assumes anyone
they interact with is straight, at least until given information that would
indicate otherwise. I would like equality between all people of any sexuality
and I see the lack of an assumption of a particular sexuality as part of
that equality, despite that fact that such a lack of assumption might appear
as an inequality. As I've said in my less rational and calm moments, "don't
assuming I'm fucking straight, dammit." :-)
On a different couple of topics... About a month ago my dad sent me a copy
of a
lecture given by Bill Moyers at the LBJ Library here in Austin, Texas
on January 4, 2002. He comments on and invites discussion on some recent
events in the history of the United States. It starts out with the events
of September 11th and goes from there to discuss religion and government.
The second piece of reading I have for you is a "rant" by one
of the MegaTokyo guys. He covers
his perspective on the nature of the web and business as well as what he
thinks the commodities are. He gets, via a different route than I did, to
the conclusion that many of the dot-com's that did fail were going to fail.
Well, it is again later in the evening than I should have been awake. I
have however, been a good geek. :-) I've been installing OpenStep 4.2 in a
VMWare virtual machine. There are instructions
and a video
driver you can use to make you life easier should you want to do the
same. Some of you who've read my computers page
may be wondering why I would need to have another system running OpenStep.
Well, I don't really "need" to, but I figured I'd see how fast (slow?) it is
running in VMWare on abunai (the dual Pentium Pro machine). I'm sitting here
writing within Terminal.app while it installs the developer tools. It is
faster for most things than my color slab, but it isn't that impressive. It
would be interesting to see it on a faster host cpu (or two).
2002.01.30 @ 01:15 AM CST
(Wednesday, January 30th, 2002)
I have some changes to report. As of last Tuesday, I have a regular,
daytime, job. Scary huh? :-) I'm one of two system administrators for
Mach 10 Hosting. Work is good
so far, and hopefully there will continue to be things for me to learn about
(MySQL being the thing I need to catch
up on the most at the moment). I'll still be doing work with Pinky's Wireless and TxIS, but it will have to be on weekends or
quite short periods of my evenings.
And, as if that wasn't geek-related... I now have a Cisco Aironet
350 PCMCIA 802.11b wireless LAN card for my laptop. It probably cost as
much as the laptop is worth, but it should be useful in a later laptop as
well as with my current one. So now I can see how well a Cisco card does
against my friend's Linksys access point and omni-directional antenna.
Speaking of wireless... I went to the Austin Wireless meeting last
night. Jim of Musenki spoke about
packet routing in wireless "ad-hoc" (a.k.a. mesh) networks. For those of
you who have experience with 802.11b (Wi-Fi), this would be a network set up
in "ad-hoc" mode as opposed to "infrastructure" mode. Each mobile system
can communicate with any of the others in range of its radio. Handing
packet flow in a network where things keep moving is "amusing," to say
the least. I hope Jim will make his slides available at some point, as they
have many details and cover things better than I could.
In other networking news, I've recently set up a small network at the Natural Gardener so
that they have speedy Internet access from all their office computers. The
computers in their store should be connected in the next month or so (once
we have time to run cable between buildings). They have an old Dell Pentium
75 (Dimension P75t) running Linux as their router/firewall. :-) This
in-and-of-itself isn't all that interesting, but it was nice to be able to
build a network for someone and do it right the first time. At the hub we
labeled the cables that snake around the office so that one would have a
chance of figuring out what goes where several years from now. The cables
are relatively well out of the way and they were able to eliminate a
parallel printer switchbox by sharing that printer over the network. I
suppose I'm amused by the little things that are so much nicer with
Ethernet running everywhere.
OK; off to bed with me, so I can be a geek at work tomorrow.
Current music: Digitally Imported
Radio
2002.01.10 @ 02:45 AM CST
(Thursday, January 10th, 2002)
In irc a friend just said:
<BurnedMan> bad google...
<BurnedMan> Spatial Nutrient Management Planner (SNMP)
Now that I've shared that out-of-context tidbit regarding SNMP
I'll actually talk about something interesting. Really...
I got a good review of the theory and operation of Ethernet networks today
via one of the local e-mail
lists to which I subscribe. They were discussing
the cabling involved in correctly running Ethernet segments on the
exterior of a building, which brought up the length limit rules as well
as signal propagation delay rules. I wrote in with the answers that I
remembered and was able to send a link that a friend
found. Though the examples are Windows centric, the pages have good
information, so check it out if you're curious.
Current music: Nickelback - Silver Side Up (as MP3s I'm encoding for a friend)
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