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Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable. EMAIL - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.. |
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February 18, 2001 - Updates at 1045
Good morning... Did you know that today, the third day of a four day weekend (for me), was the first that we managed to sleep in. Saturday, Marcia had hair and nails at 0830. Sunday is Costco. Now sure, we could go to Costco anytime. But if we go anytime but right at opening, then we can count on a 20 to 45 minute wait in the checkout lines. It's worth the effort, really.
We had a busy weekend, too. If you check out the posts from Saturday and Sunday last, you'll see there were plantings and quilts, a cat-skinning contest announcement, and the completed YaST2 writeup unveiled. Yeah, I'm rather pleased about that last, too. It's been too long.
Next up, my GnuPG key expired last month. I'd meant to take care of that, but only just got around to it. The old key links are now redirects to the Encryption page. If you have any of my old keys on your PGP or GnuPG keyrings, I'd appreciate your taking the time to remove them, and add the new one.
Now for a brief stroll around the Daynoters and friends... Jerry seems to have taken the weekend off after a hard week of fiction - Yay! Bob's been napping, and deserves it, as hard as he drives. Tom's been eating good food, and posting some good links about NFS, SSH and Samba. Bo's fighting some bio-viral bug. Shawn is posting late Friday, after hard work from a corporate move. Four kilometers of cable, huh? I hope he took the weekend off, too. Jan keeps plugging along, trapped between marvelous weather and debugging work. John Doucette's been fighting with firewalls. Chris W-J stays entertaining, and is well caught up these days, only one or two behind (days that is, not weeks, as usual),
Matt (the one with two t's) is still on hiatus, and is fighting ailments, to boot. Beam him good thoughts, OK? Dave Farquhar continues his eclectic blend of computing, faith and baseball. (I imagine that that the latter will be getting more column inches over the next few months, eh?). Steve Tucker's often too busy, but puts up some true gems, like the True Southerner... Ranging all over the place, Dan Seto takes a minute last Friday to point us over to Jennifer Balderama (who is a talented blogger also frequently favored by Doc Searls) Nope, this chain doesn't lead to Kevin Bacon, as far as I know!
Jim Crider's offlline for a while, but promises he'll be back. Dan Bowman keeps up both the Timesink (usually updated by each morning, as today), and his Blog, which gets fresh thoughts for your eyes and your heart most every evening. Wow. Ben Rota is mucking about with a Palm, and Moshe Bar continues to be busier that any seven people I know, this weekend coding for OpenMosix and reviewing movies. Bob Walder's still in (very) occasional mode, but surely working hard. Phil has been suffering from understandable computer burnout, leading to short posts. But we all want to know about Lucy, right? That Frank McPherson's been working with XP, Radio Userland and other esoterica. Keep an eye out.
Jon Sturm teaches me about new things every day - today it's furniture. Jon Hassel may be posting, but I can't find any links... John Dominik is getting read to move offices and houses all in a very short span. Lucky, lucky boy (and better him than me, heh). Mike Barkman is planning another trip and doing some yard and car work. Greg Lincoln is gunning for the YearNotes award, but I know that he's been (and continues to be) frantically busy at work, so there you go. Mr. Lemmings (the Mat of just one 't') has been slacking himself for the last week, at least publicly. But if I fall behind with Mat, I know I'll miss a tech tip I'll really need a week next Tuesday. Wrapping up this tour, Dave Markowitz has lost his car keys again, which forces him to play with computers instead. Do please encourage Dave to put links to the days of the week at the top of each week's page, would you?
I've already got four entries, and we have just six days left, so here's the announcement again: I hereby announce the First Annual Orb Designs Skin-A-Cat Competition. You all know the old adage, there's more than one way to skin a cat, neh? Sometime in the last year, I read about way number 39, which is to use a belt sander (I'll be happy to give credit for that one, if someone can direct me to the originator). So, for the next week, I'll accept submissions on the theme, then I'll post them all for your judging. The number one winner, by your votes, wins absolutely nothing except the respect and admiration of secret cat-haters the world over.
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February 19, 2002 - Updates at 1000
Yeah, we're taking today off. It's a five day weekend for Marcia, a four day for me. How lovely. Meantime, I've just finished slogging through the work email (need to keep up with that) and my email, which accounts for the last HOUR of my time. The good news is that maybe we get to see Moshe soon - It looks like he'll be in area sometime next month. Woo Hoo!!!
Yesterday, I pulled out the volunteer bulbs along the fence. Then I spent a couple hours turning and amending the soil all along there, in preparation for tomatos, green peppers and green beans. I think it looks good. Next month, I hope the plants agree!
The Skin-A-Cat Competition continues to draw fresh entries - some are really quite inventive. See the bottom of Monday's post for the details. This email, while not exactly on the mark, and anonymous by request, gives you a sense of my life these days, with this Pandora's Box I've opened...
Hi Brian, I always find it amusing when I see one of the daynoters bring up a touchy subject and people feel inclined to write to that person and to try and convert him to their views (or to simply have to comment). I have seen Pournelle get that type of mail as well as Dave F. and Thompson to name a few. Isn't it strange that we live in societies where people are allowed free speech and free thought but many just can't stand when others don't share their point of view? They just have to argue their point and to have the last word if possible. I don't get it. On to the real subject. I don't mind cats but I heard this funny joke some time ago that doesn't exactly have to do with skinning a cat, but I thought you'd like it :-) How do you make a cat bark like a dog? Pour Gasoline over it and throw a match on it. It will go "WOOOOF". Just don't post that under my name :-) Have a good week.
Now, finally, to have a cup of coffee and some breakfast. Then Sally's reprieve on the bath is over. Today is the day! See you later.
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February 20, 2002 - Updates at 0725
Ah, the friends I have... Here's two more for the Don't Try This At Home, Kids list, prompted by yesterday's cat bark like a dog derangement:
Subject: Dog -> Cat Date: 20 Feb 2002 12:17:36 How do you make a dog go Meow? Stick it in a band saw...meeeeooowwwww.
And...
Subject: Making a cat sound like a dog Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 07:52:19 Ok, that one reminds me of the reverse: How do you make a dog sound like a cat? Put it in the freezer, then use a circular saw: RRRRRaaaaarrrrr
Names and timezones redacted to protect the innocent from their outraged spouses (or is that spice?).
So, you say, what excitement did we have, taking an extra long weekend? Well, Marcia worked on two quilts yesterday (she's almost finished number 2, and all the squares for the third are assembled. She's having a lot of fun with that. I bathed the dog (which she hates). For most of the rest of the day, she was bundled up in towels underneath my desk, shivering. No, it wasn't too cold in here - I was wearing shorts - she's just high on drama. Here's a webcam capture of Sally under the desk:
While she was doing that, I broke down and discarded my Debian install from the weekend before. I really wanted to have a long look at Gentoo Linux. So I started with the install CD at about 1415 yesterday afternoon. 3 and 1/2 hours later, I was able to complete the first reboot. Please note that that span of time involved building every facet of the minimal Linux system from scratch, starting with the gcc compiler itself, then building a fresh glibc to link against everything else that was built. Then the kernel, a final few bits of configuration and voila, a booting, connected system. By late evening, I'd built most of the rest of the bits I needed - XFree86 4.2, parts of KDE, Bluefish. I left Evolution and all its Gnome dependencies building overnight, and it's running like a top, now.
Why do this? Well, it's an active and small community around Gentoo right now, and an entirely new installation paradigm (for Linux, anyway). I like working with new stuff, as long as it works well enough to let me do my other work! This does. Gentoo isn't hard, either. Anyone that has a connection to the net, can read and follow simple(-ish) directions, can install Gentoo. But it's not a first-time Linux install - you have to know what you want, find and install it. Actually, that sounds like it's calling out for a tool, doesn't it? Mmmm.
So this morning, I'm here at home, again, waiting for the cable guy to show up. We've been missing channels and guide information for the last week or more, and this is the earliest that they could roll a truck for us. Bleah. I'd best get some coffee, and get my shoes on, in case they show up early. Later.
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February 21, 2002 - Updates at 0710
Running late, sorry. Some good news in that I may be writing another tutorial for DevWorks soon. More when I know more. Meantime, I'm outta here. Look for more this afternoon. Thanks!
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February 22, 2002 - Updates at 0730
Good morning. I know, I know. I just didn't have a return engagement in me yesterday. I was talking to Tom the other evening, and he noted that things aren't as rosy as they could be for me, saying that he could tell by the quality and enthusiasm in my posts. Indeed. I'm distracted and worried by events beyond my control, which I am not at liberty to discuss here. Some things may or may not have been resolved at yesterday's board meeting (of which I am not a part), but I haven't heard the outcome there, or if there was one...
No, really, I'm fine, more or less. I'm going to push for some personal resolution on the issues I care about this afternoon. I'm sick and tired of letting external events have their way with my sleeping habits, powers of concentration, and so on. The very good news in all of this is that at no point during the stress of the last year or so have I been tempted to return to any old, bad behaviours. No siree, Bob!
Topping it off, today is meeting with Nick Siersema today. Nick is our CPA, a top-notch guy. If you live or work in the SF Bay Area and you're looking for a good tax guy, give me a shout and I'll put you in touch with him. He and his staff do excellent work. That said, I still despise tax season. Maybe we'll be surprised, and not owe a mint on the money they let us keep from our paychecks over the last year. Sigh.
Beam good thoughts at Keri and Matt Beland - Matt needs them because he's in the hospital, waiting for a particularly painful and largish stone to pass, and Keri is worried and sleep deprived. On the other side of the country, Barbara Thompson's dad is also deserving of your attentions, just having been diagnosed with pneumonia.
Last night, overnight, I left Gentoo running a source installation of the balance of KDE. I'll have a report for you at some near point in time about the performance gains. In a measured test, having gcc compiled for this hardware bought me a whole minute off on the compile time for the standard kernel configuration that I use. That's an improvement of about 15% or a shade more. I'm impressed. Definitely all my screen operations are snappier, and so far, this is neither harder to understand nor maintain than a Debian install.
OK. I'm out of things to say right now. We're having supper with Pat and Nathan tonight, so it's likely I won't be back here today, unless there's some stunning news to pass along from my inquiries this afternoon. Oh, yeah, about the new Tutorial: It's going to be about Emacs, and once I give Troy a timeline, Studio B will send me a contract, and then I'll get to work. At least, that's the plan.
Have a lovely Friday, feel better soon if you aren't now, take care of yourself and those around you. See ya!
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February 23, 2002 - Updates at 0915 and
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Good morning. Yep, we slept late, I just wanted to pop in here for a minute and let you know we were here, up and about. I'll be back in a couple of hours with news and a snapshot or two. But now it's time for coffee. Later!
1655 - Well, I did say a couple of hours... and this is the same day, so I'll call it close enough. Click the thumb at left to have a good look at the latest quilt from Marcia's talented hands. This one is going to be a gift to a small person we know, I think... Note that it comes with a matching pillow. Very cool - I'm proud of my talented Marcia.
In other news, it is now certain that there are big changes coming in my professional life. More details as events unfold publicly, but it's time to do some SERIOUS networking - read my resume here, critique it if you like, offer it to your friends and employers and whomever else you deem appropriate. My availability is at the end of March, perhaps before. I guess I feel good about having done the right thing. I stood by my employer through some very, very tough times. I thought about bailing out last year, but in the end, my conscience wouldn't sit still for that.
Meantime, over the balance of this weekend I've got to throw together some more info for our tax guy, and put together a writing timeline for the IBM DevWorks tutorial. So what happens? My monitor starts going wonky, and my left wrist starts flaring up again a bit. OK. I'll bite. I broke down and headed down to Fry's, after checking out the alpha version of Bob's Monitors chapter for the PCHIAN 2nd Edition. Yes, you should go subscribe to his site - it's worth it.
Back to my story, I headed down to Fry's and after looking at several monitors, I came away with a NEC MultiSync FE950+. Now I've got a nice, rock steady 19" monitor that does 1600x1200 at 75Hz. (The old Gateway EV900 dropped to 60Hz at that resolution. That's tough on the eyes.) For the wrist, I picked up my first humpbacked keyboard - this one's a MS Natural Pro. Marcia has a Pro here and at work - it's been a night and day difference for her. Once my head gets wrapped around doing the new right thing with the fingers, all will be well. I'm adapting remarkably quickly.
Here's a fun link for those of you that tolerate Flash on your boxes. The All-NEW Enron Voice Mail Message... Haa hee hee ha! Thanks to Nathan for that one. And we did have a lovely evening with Pat and Nathan last night. Heh, you want a real chuckle: Nathan just last week activated his copy of Windows XP. Then his system went unstable for a couple of reasons, so he scraped the disk off, and reinstalled everything from scratch. Then he went to activate with the original PA code, and it failed. We're not talking about identical hardware here, we're talking about the same hardware! Thank you, Microsoft. He fought through a voice mail system, then was on hold, then had to convince a dubious human regarding his circumstances before he got a new code. And Nathan's a respected industry analyst (not that the hell desk grunt knew that). Lucky boy. I guess I'll pass on XP, eh?
More info and other linkage: For those of you that want to use debian at home, at the far end of an itty-bitty dialup soda straw, but you do have a broadband connection at work, there's another solution. Look to apt-zip. From an email that I came across a few days back:
apt-zip was designed for exactly this. (think "ZIP disk" 100MB)
Instead of downloading, apt-zip creates a BASH script that you can take
wherever you want, which then downloads the needed files (wget needed on
target machine), and another BASH script which installs the stuff.
Pretty cool. Next up, I received this odd email a few days ago. I'm still trying to figure out what the real motivation is... am I supposed to write a term paper for someone??? -
From: Chester Bennington <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Subject: Help me! Date: 14 Feb 2002 04:53:35 -0800 I really wanna know about this and hopely your kind to answer my question.My question: 1.Who to more blame - the producer who sell the pirated tapes and CD or them whose buy it? 2.Why? Thank You very kind. Carls Jaybee __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings!
Now, what do you suppose prompted that, and why am I the blessed recipient of such a task? Mmmm. As written, it assumes that the producer of pirated tapes and CDs is also the seller, and that there is a way to necessarily determine whether you're buying blackmarket goods (if the copies come in reasonable facsiimilies of the legitimate packaging, anyway. That said, there are better ways to fight the RIAA and the MPAA than by buying illicit copies of their works. Vote with your dollars - don't buy movies and music. Buy technical books written by Daynoters, and improve your minds instead of watching Britany Spears.
Enough for now. See you tomorrow!
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February 24, 2002 - Updates at Noon
Good day. We've done our shopping, a bit of picking up here and there, and spruced the back yard up just for you to come and virtually visit, as you can see to the right and left. Marcia made those cushion covers, and we found the right umbrella to match, on sale, just today. Hope you like it... we do!
I put up some important stuff in the Saturday Evening Post (heh) so if you haven't, please go read it. And don't forget, time is running very short on the Skin-A-Cat contest, and there aren't that many entrants yet, so everyone still has a chance to win. Here's the announcement, again:
Announcement
The First Annual Orb Designs Skin-A-Cat Competition. You all know the old adage, there's more than one way to skin a cat, neh? Sometime in the last year, I read about way number 39, which is to use a belt sander (I'll be happy to give credit for that one, if someone can direct me to the originator). So, for the next week, I'll accept submissions on the theme, then I'll post them all for your judging. The number one winner, by your votes, wins absolutely nothing except the respect and admiration of secret cat-haters the world over.
Also, I appreciate the feedback I'm receiving on my resume, and incorporating those things that work for me. Thanks for your help. Now it's time to do the next thing, whatever that is. See you a bit later.
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Last Week
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Next Week
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 © 1999-2002 Brian P. Bilbrey.