Orb Home
Site Map
Current Week
Orb Designs Grafitti
August 13 through August 19, 2001
Last Week <-- * --> Next Week
--> Link to Most Recent Week <--
Email Brian Bilbrey |
Orb Home
|
Orb Designs Grafitti
|
Email Brian Bilbrey |
Orb Grafitti is sometimes a conversation, sometimes a soapbox. I use Linux most often, and I write about that and related software frequently. I also have a day job working as a dogsbody for a small manufacturing firm here in the SF Bay Area. Tom Syroid and I have co-authored a Linux Book. It was cancelled by $LARGE_PUBLISHER, so we're posting it online, here and here. Have a looksee! I'm glad you've come to visit, and always happy to hear from you.
EMAIL - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so, I'll pay attention to your wishes.
Good morning, Happy Monday <grin> Well, the good news is that the move has, so far, gone off without a hitch, relatively speaking. I have a few WTF moments to relate, which I'll get to later, but first...
Do us all a favor and think good thoughts, or pray, or whatever other method floats your boat, regarding this sad situation in the Middle East. These countries are sending their children to kill each other, and their leaders exhort us to choose sides. I choose peace, and hope that they can, too.
I've been fighting with a DNS problem all morning, and it's eaten what little time I have right now. I shall return. Later.
20:34 - I know, but it is later, and on the same day, even. Mmmm. What's first on the list? OK, how about phone service. We cut over the data phone line on the first. That left us without easy fax capability from the apartment, but gave us our first connectivity here at the house. That line was in place when I grubbed around under the apartment a week or so ago. On Friday last (the 10th), I cancelled our DSL service as provided by Speakeasy and Covad, and PBI moved our main voice line over to the house. I ignored that for a time, and we simply moved stuff. LOTSASTUFF (tm)!
Come Saturday evening, I went to go move some of the terminations about, and light up the whole house with voice and data. So, using a test jack, I identified which of the two remaining inbound lines had our main voice number attached. Easy. Terminated the wires, and all of the top RJ11 jacks were live. Well, all except the original and only existing jack in the house, in the kitchen. Nada there, yet...
Wait. Nothing there??? I had our fax line attached to that outlet. Why don't I have tone there. I check the bottom jacks... no tone. What? They turned on the main voice line, and cut off the data line? WTF? Mmmm... I probably attached something incorrectly. So I started futzing around, checking for tone at the demarcation point where the three lines come off the pole. Top line: check, main voice line. OK, Second line (where the data line is connected)... no tone. Double-mmmmm.
Check the formerly "dark" third line - tone! @&#%$^&@#%^&'ing phone company. When they connected up our second line, they moved the first line. BAH BAH BAH !!! Sorry for that outbreak of gibsonitis <grin>. Anyway, once I had that straightened out, all the phones rang to the right numbers, when plugged into the proper jacks.
So next it was DATA time. Bring the network to life. I took my time, planned out where equipment would go, and where power needed to be for things... plugged everything in to the right places, routed and cleaned up the wiring, turned everything on and Poof! up in a flash. All of my office systems came to life. I reset the Linksys Cable/DSL router to factory defaults, entered in all of the various addresses from our connection sheet, and everything just worked. Grendel, Garcia and Gryphon came to life, on line and on time. Cool.
Too good to last, needed some karma balancing yet, you say? You're right of course. I plugged up Marcia's Pavillion - took about 10 minutes to route power and cables as before, then wahh-wahh-waaaaah... nothing. Fails to power up. Sigh. The lights flash, the CPU fan starts to spin, then everything dies. Again and again and again. No joy.
It's probably the proprietary little 125 watt POS powersupply that HP puts in those micro-tower Pavillions - after a little while I notice that while the CPU fan starts to spin up, the PS fan does not. By now it's nearly 8 on Saturday evening, and I've been going great blazes for about 8 straight days. Time to die. And I did.12 hours of sleep later, it was time to start again. Now Marcia's box is frankenstien'd into the shell of the former Grinch, with a new floppy drive (old one died somewhere along the line, and didn't have a face-plate anyway, running a PIII-600 and 256 Meg of RAM (combo Crucial and assorted oddments. I can fall back on the one 128 Meg stick of Crucial if any problems crop up. I also got her an additional 40 G of storage, which we've formatted as D and E for partitioning out her data, or simply as second spindle backup for the time being. Maybe I'll use E as network attached storage... Well.
Overall, things are well, although I probably strained something in my left arm - even lifting it in certain orientations causes significant amounts of pain. On the flip side of that, my bum knee (problem stemming from a patch of ice in Yosemite back in February) hasn't played up with me at all. How lovely. Now to do a little more office assembly for myself, as Marcia's doing the same thing in her space. See you tomorrow...
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Morning. I slept really deep again. Whew. I might feel human once again sometime this year. Did you catch last night's post - It was a tad longish, on phone and data connectivity fun.
On today's .plan, first we have the Video department from AT&T Broadband turning up to connect our TV up. The data guy who was here a while back doesn't DO that, even though... well, you know. Heh. That's scheduled between 9 and 11 this am. Then we're picking up a couple of small shelf units for the living room. With those in place, we'll be able to start unboxing there.
Ooooh. Almost forgot - I also have to cut a board to block access to the crawl space so that it doesn't become a home for wayward critters down there. Lots to do, so I'd best get to it. Back later with some pictures. Thanks for your patience - We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming soon.
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Well, it's still morning on this coast anyway, although I use the word "coast" in it's figurative sense - Dan Bowman and family are actually at the coast, we're merely in the same timezone, in easy driving distance of ocean, with this whole week off. Somehow I don't think we're going to make it more than 10 miles from here while we keep unpacking, and unpacking, and unpacking...
A big ODG tip of the hat to Phil Hough, who found that I had somehow incorporated a filesystem reference into a link. In the process of locating that error to fix it, I found a second link error. BAH! My apologies, gentle readers. I can only plead distraction and overwork.
We have made progress however, and I anticipate clearing the last of the boxes from the house today. Once that's done, I'll be in a position to put up some snaps of the new digs. Yesterday's progress included picking up, setting up, and moving stuff into the new bedroom furniture. We also took a stab at the 35 boxes still stacked in the middle of the living room, and we've got them down to a manageable sixteen.
The downside of this is that I am living on ibuprofin and Glucosamine Complex. Every part of my body aches all the time. Right now, in the morning, things are OK, but by the time evening rolls around, when I want to put up an evening progress report, it hurts even to type. So, as we begin to wind down each day, sometime between 2100 and 2200, we pop a movie into the VCR and die on the couch, putting our feet up on the pile of boxes. Last night was Return of the Jedi, which wrapped up a bit past midnight. Then I slept once again the sleep of the dead.
Wait... I hear a beeping. That must mean the coffee's ready. Cool. I need that to wash down the morning painkillers, joint compound, and anti-oxidants (well, the latter if I can find where I hid them during the unpacking of my office).
I hope all is well with you and yours, here in the dog days of 2001. Take care, see you soon (maybe later, maybe tomorrow - we'll see how it goes). TTFN.
18:45 - Howdy. Welcome back. The boxes we put down inside the house are done with, thank goodness. Now there's only washing up, deciding where to put stuff for display, and figuring out which art looks good on which walls. There's a surprising amount of the latter to deal with. Didn't seem like so much when it came out of the apartment. Hmmm.
Some Orb stuff up next... At the half-month mark, I see a little over 10K page reads in 62K hits (Lotsapictures [tm] this month). Then we have some fun searchs that lead people here:
That rounds out the top ten searches that land in Orb Designs' site. What follows are a few more choice selections from the top 200...
Plus there's lots of queries for Caldera, KDE and VMware screenshots, which are sprinkled here and there throughout the site liberally. Also there's lots of Linux questions implied in the queries. I might could start answering some of those based on the search queries. We'll see.
Now I think I'll call it something of an evening. Take care.
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Good morning. Don Armstrong has been busy as a result of last night's post from my tired brain...
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 17:15:29 +1000 (EST)
From: Don Armstrong
Subject: SearchesI couldn't help myself - I had to follow some of those search terms down. Herewith:
beastiality ftp
My comment: well, what can I say? You're number one on the google list. You WILL insist on saying these things, right out front. And you've done it again - you'll probably never lose the crown as "beastiality ftp" king. Personally, I would have thought it was "bestiality", but then I'm not an expert, unlike (I assume) your searcher.card new on spankings - um, again, what?
My comment: it's a fair cop - you were definitely getting into spankings that day.
- - -
brand spanking new (ooooh, more spankings?) brand spanking new HP ... Nothing really new other than that - I ... Conexant combo modem/audio card isn't supported, but I ...
http://www.orbdesigns.com/bpages/z20000507.htmlabuse of sherpas - Really? This is a problem for people???
My comment: apparently it is for the sherpas - particularly older ones.
- - -
... Consultancy http://www.leuf.com/. orbdesign.com is registered - as ... ready to see the abuse you miss, check out ... a team of mutant sherpas, under the direction of ...
http://www.orbdesigns.com/bpages/z19991017.htmlprank soundboards - What?
Apparently, at a quick scan, people using sound cards and voice synthesis to make prank phone calls from famous people - or maybe bulletin boards from which they can download famous voices to use for prank calls.
- - -
... Virtual Machine (VM) product is an internal prank gone awry. ... re-treaded live collections from the official soundboards, just to hear the little differences in ...
www.orbdesigns.com/bpages/z20000903.htmlDon't forget to give us an update on the perambulatory tomatoes.
Yo'all have a nice day now.
Don Armstrong
Thanks for dropping a line - long time no see.
On Thu, Aug 16, 2001 at 05:15:29PM +1000, Don Armstrong wrote:
> I couldn't help myself - I had to follow some of those
> search terms down. Herewith:
[...snippage...]Do you suppose that I didn't make the effort that you did because I might find out the answers??? Heh.
> Don't forget to give us an update on the perambulatory
> tomatoes.The tomatoes are suffering. They've picked up something fungal, and I need to get a spray for that today before they die. Mmmm.
regards,
.brian
--
Brian Bilbrey :: [email protected] :: www.orbdesigns.com
"Regulatory science is to science as bear traps are to bears."
Dr. Jerry Pournelle
For those of you who are Bloom County or Outland fans (and there are lots, you know who you are), there's an interview with Berkeley Breathed on the Onion A. V. Club. Bloom county was always one of my favorites, mostly because every time I look at my hair in the morning getting out of bed I am reminded of Bill the Cat. Apparently this has the same effect on Marcia as well... she screams "Aaaaack!" and runs from the room (and my hair). Poor kid.
Another interesting link I culled from Slashdot last night is on the topic of Mob Software. It's a long, literary diatribe on the error of our coding ways. I like it a lot - it starts like this:
Let's rock!
I've got good news: That way of hacking you like is going to come back in style.
Over the years I've despaired that the ways we've created to build software matches less and less well the ways that people work effectively. More so, I've grown saddened that we're not building the range of software that we could be, that the full expanse of what computing could do-to enhance human life, to foster our creativity and mental and physical comfort, to liberate us from isolation from knowledge, art, literature, and human contact-is left out of our vision. It seems that high-octane capitalism has acted like an acid or a high heat to curdle and coagulate our ways of building software into islands that limit us.
I've yet to digest this fully, but my initial take on this is as another variant on the bazaar development model as promoted by ESR in The Cathedral and The Bazaar. However, using the words "development model" defeats the purpose. Since I am only partway through my first cup of coffee, I can't be coherent on the topic yet - I'll be back for more on this one.
Now it's time to continue putting our house in order, deal with erroneous bills, meet with an alarm company representative, and on and on and on... What a lovely way to spend a week's vacation, don't you think? See you later!
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Welcome to Friday! We're close, real close to being done. Here's a pair of interim office setup snaps to whet your appetite. On the left is mine, which is set up very much like it was in the old place. At the right is Marcia's office, which we still have some adjustments for, including notching out part of the desk to let the computer chassis slide back out of knee-destroyer range.
We did pick up new furniture for the bedroom, and got a really good deal on well constructed pieces. We're quite happy with the look and feel of the whole house, and having a bedroom that looks like that from a home rather than a college dorm is nice...
Today we're planning on putting up the art on the walls, and doing some organizational bits in the garage, both for permanent home stuff, and to get ready for Marcia's garage sale next Sunday. I suppose we'd best get started before the heat picks up and makes the garage an unpleasant place to be.
Finally for now, I took a break for a while yesterday, and picked up a PC game called The Longest Journey. An adventure game, Myst-like detailing, no combat, a bit slow paced (so far) for my taste. Fun, though. I am enjoying it. Mmmm. I suppose work comes before games. Yeah. It does. See you later.
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Good morning. Two days, then I go back to work. Won't that be relaxing after a week full of moving. Heh. I received an email yesterday from Dr. Rick Booth. Something about search terms and part of the name of a new band. Really, though, you'll have to ask Rick yourself... Additionally, though I thought I knew this before, Rick has his own website, recently reorganized. You'll find a rich set of links, a section on music, and the occasional rant or two. Fun stuff.
If you've been keeping track of gaming in the Linux arena, then you already know some of the details of the Loki bankruptcy filing. However, things are apparently not as altogether rosy as the picture previously painted by Loki founder Scott Draeker. This interesting article on LinuxToday illuminates a company gone seriously sour. Sigh, that's too bad. I have purchased some Linux games from Loki in the past and if they survive, I'll do so again, to be sure.
Next, culled from Slashdot, I turned up this link to a Grant Gross article on NewsForge entitled Does this article violate the DMCA?. In light of recent events, it is entirely possible that the article could be considered illegal under the DMCA. How very, very ... interesting. So who's running for President next? Nehemiah Scudder? Mmmmm.
Finally for now, on this link-O-rama binge, we have a paper at Silicon Defense on the topic of Flash Worms. The premise here is that a pre-compiled list of vulnerable machines (determined by scanning in advance of the attack) could allow a worm to propogate over the entire vulnerable population on the internet in something under 30 seconds. Mmmm. I found this to be an interesting scenario, culled from the [email protected] mailing list. If you want to keep track of what's going on with this stuff, then (as Matt Beland said) you need to be on this mailing list.
Marcia's off doing the hair and nails thing at the moment, and I am about through with the email and surfing thing, so it's time to put the last pieces in place in recovery from the move. I did just determine that due to a design flaw in the plumbing layout under the kitchen sink, the dishwasher spits it's outflow up and out the overflow, which runs over the sink and onto the floor. Mmmmm. Sigh. Another thing to look at soon.
Back with you later. TTFN.
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Howdy. The final ritual of suburban living is now in progress. That's right, we're having a garage sale (or a yard sale, or a rummage sale, if those words are your regional preference) - however, we are selling neither a garage nor a yard, and I always did think that rummage was a verb, not a noun...
The good news in all of this is that we're finally disposing of (one way or another) all of the gubbage that we've accumulated, don't use, and Marcia wouldn't previously let me consign to the rubbish bin. Offsetting that was getting up at 06:30 on a Sunday morning to set this all up! Marcia has already sold between $25 and $50 worth of stuff. Pretty cool!
I suppose that I'd best get out and be the house detective for this event, so I'll leave you to your Sunday. Have a lovely one, and we may be back with more pictures later, depending on how things go. TTFN
Top / Site Map / Orb Home / Email to Bilbrey
Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.
All Content Copyright © 1999-2001 Brian P. Bilbrey.