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Orb Designs Grafitti March 18 thru March 24, 2002 Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun Last Week  <--  *  -->   Next Week --> Most Recently: Sunday AM <-- Email Brian 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..

MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 18, 2001 -    Updates at 0700

Good morning. Yeah, it's Monday again, but it's not my fault - they were doing this long before I was born (or so I'm told). The good news is that I finished my draft of the Living In Emacs tutorial last night about 9, packaged it up and sent it to those who need to see it in order that they might tell me how to make it better. Of course, it's not really a draft... I'm done with it, but I'll be happy to make those changes anyway, since having something right only for me only counts when I'm writing just for myself.

The fun thing about this exercise was that I used GNU Emacs and its SGML mode to actually write the whole tutorial, in the IBM Tootomatic XML schema. I hadn't worked in Emacs for a ... while, but it was fun watching my fingers slowly remember what to do. It's a lot like sitting down at an application that uses the old Wordstar keymap. After a short interval, I'm humming along, as though I'd never left. It is like riding a bike, except that I don't fall off an application... <grin>.

It was only on Friday that I flashed on the fact that while I had put in a proposal for a 50 to 60 panel Tutorial, the request had come back for 35 to 40 panels. Mmmm. I had to hack and slash at the bones of this thing, take some of the explanations of advanced stuff out and simply show several of them in one section at the end. I do like having that in there, giving people an incentive to keep learning and digging deeper into their application and working environment. That's especially true of Emacs, which is broad, deep, and highly customizable. Mmmm. I think I got it down to about 43 panels, and they can cut out a couple of introductory bits if they want... if they must.

Am I ready to throw over my daily Vim use and actually live in Emacs again (yes, again, I did while coding in the 80's)? Don't drag me into this debate - I use Vim as my utility editor. When/If I start some serious coding again, Emacs is likely to jump to the fore as my tool of choice. GUI integrated development environments are pretty, and some are fairly useful too - I hear very good things about KDevelop - but Emacs works, I can customize it to fit what I'm working on. As an accessory on my Coding Hat, Emacs just works perfectly. And yeah, I've done time with Lisp - it's not so bad, all those parenthesis, as long as you cross your eyes just a little bit.

I don't think I mentioned - One of the nice features about Gentoo Linux is that, since everything's compiled from sources, the dependency management is quite robust (at least for adding software - there's nothing to prevent me from removing glibc from the system, but then... why would I do that?). This makes it relatively straightforward to add brand new software to the system, even when it's not "supported" by the main tree of the distribution. So I installed the latest beta of KDE3. The unofficial ebuild is configured to pull the QT and KDE sources direct from CVS, and with just a couple of modifications (the CVS tree has changed since the ebuild was written) KDE3 builds and installs very nicely. An added advantage is that it doesn't blow away my KDE2.x install, either on the system or ~ levels, so that I can swap back if I find something is too broken to work with. I haven't found that though - KDE3 rocks! Yeah, there are broken bits still - this feels a bit more like a beta than an RC, but man is it FAST! When it's ready, you're going to like this.

Now, I'd best be on my way. Y'all have a lovely Monday, and don't forget to keep passing my resume around - I'm available after March 29th, full time.

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Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 19, 2002 -    Updates at 0640

Howdy. I've been through a round of editing on the tutorial, and am awaiting feedback from the eagle eyes at StudioB to tell me what's left to do, then it's done. Right now I'm a tad motivationally challenged - it's way early, this cold/allergy/whatever thing continues to drag at me, and I'm still lagged from 36 hours of writing over the weekend.

You may have noticed that Bob Thompson responded to my plea for numbers last Saturday (the post, not the plea). There indeed is a significant gain in the Linux numbers. I might discount the increase only because you wonderful readers are usually way out on the leading edge of computing, and that includes Linux. I don't think that the increase is entirely indicative of the general population. Gosh, I ought to go into the Linux pre-loaded business. Whaddaya mean, Microsoft won't cut me any deals on operating systems then... Oh, darn.

I heard from Moshe, he's back from his travels. Do you keep up at http://www.moelabs.com/? You should - there's interesting stuff for the Linuxen there. OpenMosix is running solidly for me - I'm exercising it continuously on my itty-bitty two node network, and boringly, there's nothing to report. Exercising? Running multiple instances of Seti@Home here on Garcia, and letting the overload migrate over to Gryphon the laptop. It's very stable and efficient. Unless Moshe assigns me some more significant or challenging HPC tasks, that's all I've got to test with.

Nothing more for the moment - I'll drop back this afternoon when something exciting happens. Take care!

1425 - There's an interesting alert that just dropped into my inbox from the Incidents mailing list at SecurityFocus. DNS poisoning...

Just to let everyone know, there has been some major DNS cache poisoning going on at Verisign apparently done by some Brazilians ("Web Pirates") for web site defacements. If your parking your DNS at worldnic.com (netsol/verisign) you might want to see if you site has been redirected to 64.225.154.175 (owned by Interland of Atlanta) using random DNS servers.

Don't you love UDP.

That's all for now. See you in a bit...

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Mon    Tues    WEDNESDAY    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 20, 2002 -    Updates at 0700

Good morning. OK, I've slogged through the morning email, found a nugget or two to put aside for later digestion, and consigned the rest to the Great Beyond, where goeth old email, ball point pens, and singleton brown patterned socks. What I've been working on each day during the business day is documenting my span at the company, making sure loose ends are properly bundled up, fixing up the remaindered computer problems, etc. Well, I'm doing as much of that last as I can on a zero budget. The primary machine base is now over 5 years old, composed mainly of Asus PI-133 machines with 32 M of RAM, 2G Western Digital drives, and Diamond SVGA cards. In their day they were OK, but they're showing their gray now. I sacked the parts from three machines to make one that works, and reimaged that one as a hot-swap box. I'll do the same to another box abandoned by a departed worker bee today...

Reimage? With what? Windows 95, Office 97 + SR1 + SR2, Visual Manufacturing client software, Netscape Communicator 4.77, AVG AntiVirus 6.0 Free Edition, AcroRead. That about does it. The funny thing is that just as Bob's critical need detectors failed this week, letting him get significant work done quickly, mine are clearly adjusted perfectly. Rebuilding one of these machines three weeks ago, under time pressure, took more than a day, as I had to install the software multiple times before all the bits would install correctly. Yesterday I went from bare metal to humming along in about 3 hours (all software, not just Win95). No pressure, so the CND didn't kick in.

I'm really having fun mucking about with the new KDE. It's version 3 beta (that is, 2.9.9 rc2 or something like that), pulled from CVS and built right here. They've fixed a couple of crashy-bugs in the last couple of days, and really it seems quite stable now. My only beef is that I don't get native JPEG handling. That is, I can't set a JPEG image as the desktop background, and they don't autopreview in the file manager when requested. I've sent up a request for clarification, and gotten no reply yet, but these are busy people. Besides, I know what the files are, and I don't generally need image preview in the FM. For the desktop, I can just convert the images to PNG anyway, as you can see from the desktop shot I've got at left here. The thumbnail links to a 50% reduced full screenshot, click here if you want the 220K 1600x1200 version to see the pretty screen, the anti-aliased fonts, and clearly the translucent terminal window with the OpenMosix monitor running...

I was talking with Bob on the phone yesterday about what I'm going to do next, among other things. One of the topics was about converting to writing full time. I've got some inquiries to make into the topic, and Marcia and I would need to evaluate such a step pretty carefully, with a sharp eye towards the consequences. I'll keep you updated as and when we make any decisions.

Time for me to get moving, folks. Have a lovely hump day, and I'll see you around later. (You did see the mini-afternoon post yesterday, right?) Heh. Later!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 21, 2002 -    Updates at 0645

Good day. It's my Friday, and I plan on being smug about it, okay? Yesterday, along with other assorted tasks, I rebuilt the second tier firewall yesterday, to bring the kernel, zlib and ssh up to snuff, among other things. That box was running Mandrake 7.0 previously, sitting in a back corner headless, and frankly I'd just forgotten about it. So I wiped it (just in case someone'd gotten in and done something nasty) and put Debian Woody on it. Smooth, small, and easy to maintain remotely. I have a few more configuration items on that to take care of today, then it's rock and roll time. A shame, really. That box had nice uptime - I hadn't even touched it in over a year. Of course, he gets a new name, too: Roland (the Headless Thompson Gunner) - a tribute to Warren Zevon.

Gentoo LInux and KDE3 beta are rocking along nicely thanks. I'd sent Dan Armak a report of the JPEG problems I'd been having (as had Greg Lincoln, been having the problems, that is) - Dan found the problem was that there were new build options for the underlying QT library, starting with the most recent sub-version: QT-3.0.3. So he fixed up the options in the unofficial Gentoo ebuilds that he maintains for KDE3, and posted them on his page. I fetched those down, rebuilt QT, and all is well. If you want to live on the bleeding edge of Gentoo and KDE3, go to Dan's page, read everything, and have some fun. I'll note that it was Matt Beland that brought my attention to that first, several weeks ago.

I got such a nice email yesterday (but he doesn't have to call me Mr. Bilbrey, really):

From: John A. Goglick
Subject: iptables
Date: 20 Mar 2002 13:52:36 -0600

Mr. Bilbrey:

I wanted to drop you a quick line (or three). I enjoy reading your graffiti pages. I am a Network Administrator (I deal with NT/2000, Novell, and Cisco) and have dabbled in Linux off and on for a while. My comfort level with Linux is one where I consider myself extremely dangerous :) On to the point.....although a bunch of the stuff you write about Linux is over my head, I still find it interesting. One thing in particular, though, I'd like to comment on. On Dec 2, 20001, you gave a brief overview of iptables. This was a great help to me. After pouring through the man page, you helped make it "click" in my head. By no means am I an authority yet, but I do now know which way is up.

Just thought I'd say thanks.

John Goglick

Just "Brian" is fine, when I start insisting on the more formal mode, I'll be ready for a nice cozy 3x7 plot. > for a while. My comfort level with Linux is one where I consider > myself extremely dangerous :) That's the time that's the most fun, as long as you keep good backups... Glad to be of service. regards, .brian

Finally, thanks to Gary Berg for noting early yesterday that my entire Wednesday post was turning up in Emphasis (due to a broken tag from the night before). What's funny is that Konqueror didn't pick up the breakage (or noted two opening tags and no closing and did the right thing anyway), but IE and NS both showed it. Well, the good thing is that I don't have to do my own QA - I can count on you lovely people. You're probably glad that I don't screw up too often, huh? And that's all I've got for this portion of today's programming. Now I'd best get ready to go. Have a great day!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
March 22, 2002 -    Updates at 0758 and 1525

Good morning. Sorry for the delay - I've been busy replicating and filing a couple of bug reports against some beta software for Gentoo, reading my email, and looking into a few dark corners. ALERT: There's going to be extra posts today, so come back later, too. First, though, let's consider Sun Microsystems. I've tested and used StarOffice 6.0 Beta since they put it out. I'll admit to having wondered what was going to happen when the Beta expired (set for this upcoming sunday), and there's no final product to take it's place. Strand users now, and piss them all off - not a good thing.

So I go to do my weekly check of my yahoo mail account (where I direct many of my product registration contacts), lo and behold, there's an email from Sun, offering a patch to the Beta, extending it's life until June 3, which might overlap the retail (yeah, gotta BUY it unless you're using Slowaris) version by a week or two if they don't slip again. I follow the link, and ... sheesh - they want full contact information, etc, etc to download the patch. Sorry, they got all that from me when I got the original 6.0 Beta. Making us do so again, when the only possible use for the patch is by those that already registered once is either annoying or malicious, depending on whether you subscribe to various conspiracy theories or not. Me? I'm just annoyed. I'll let my Beta lapse. They have to SELL me, since OpenOffice already works, thanks very much. If you want or need the patch, however, it can be found here: http://www.sun.com/staroffice/so6beta_patch.html

Now, while I look into the variety of things going wrong in the world today, check out this email from Dave Browning on the SSSCA debacle - there's important action to be taken - heed his words.

From: 	dave browning
Subject: 	Important News about the SSSCA
Date: 	21 Mar 2002 20:42:16 -0500	

Brian,

     You may already have heard about this, but given the importance of
the topic, I wanted to make sure.

http://slashdot.org/articles/02/03/21/2344228.shtml?tid=103

    According to the link above from Slashdot, Senator Ernest Hollings
introduced the SSSCA today. Evidently it has been renamed the Consumer
Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act or CBDTPA. I will be
writing letters to my Senators over the weekend to express my clear
displeasure with the bill. The reason I am waiting that long is that I
want to very carefully consider what I want to say, and briefly and
clearly state my opinion in a one page letter.

     Let me bluntly say that I believe that I believe that violation of
United States Copyright law is a real problem in the digital era.  With
my computer equipment, I could make copies of my audio CD collection and
give them to friends. In the near future, I will be able to economically
afford to do the same thing with my DVD collection. I choose not to do
so, because these things are not covered by my fair use rights. However,
I believe even more strongly that the proposed remedy is worse than the
problem. This bill might help the entertainment industry, but it will
more certainly harm the computer industry.

     In addition to writing my Senators, I am inclined to write to the
MPAA, the RIAA and their member companies and clearly and politely give
them a piece of my mind. I will probably put a little extra time into my
letter to Michael Eisner, the Chairman of Disney, who so politely
implied that I am a thief in his testimony before Congress. Finally, any
people I know who have blatantly violated United States Copyright Law
will find out that I don't disagree with Mr. Eisner's thoughts about
them.

     Please take the time to clearly and articulately express your
opinion to your Senators. Also please encourage your readers to do
likewise.

See you back here later...

Dear Senator Leahy, Senator Hatch, and Representative Coble: I am writing today to express my dismay over the proposed CBDTPA bill, and I urge you to do whatever is in your power to prevent this bill *and* others like it from becoming law. I am a computer professional and author by trade. I use computers to to my job. The technology restrictions that an Entertainment Industry driven mandate would place upon me are unfair, unreasonable and unconsionable. I am firmly against the theft of revenue that's due to creators and distributors of entertaining and educational materials, from movies and music to books and more. However, attempting to control such illegal activity by effectively revoking the fair use rights that all consumers now have is the wrong direction to move in. The CBDTPA will stifle innovation and give control of our technology (and thus, our whole economy, in truth) to the minority interests from the upper echelon of the Entertainment Industry. Please, I urge you and your colleagues to do what's right for consumers, for everyone, by letting this bill die, and making sure it never gets past you under yet another guise. Sincerely, Brian Philip Bilbrey Sunnyvale, California.

http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/input_form.cfm?comments=1 to leave comments, and see the most recent EFF announcement here

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    SATURDAY    Sun   
March 23, 2002 -    Updates at 0745

Good morning. Marcia and I have got a lot to do today. Working backwards we've got dinner with friends, some yardwork to tend to if the skies clear (and a dog to walk, in that case), and a trip to Orchard's How-To fair up in San Mateo. Should be busy and fun. But it doesn't leave me much time to do this so...

I'll just repeat myself from yesterday - it should be important to you too:

Dear Senator Leahy, Senator Hatch, and Representative Coble: I am writing today to express my dismay over the proposed CBDTPA bill, and I urge you to do whatever is in your power to prevent this bill *and* others like it from becoming law. I am a computer professional and author by trade. I use computers to to my job. The technology restrictions that an Entertainment Industry driven mandate would place upon me are unfair, unreasonable and unconsionable. I am firmly against the theft of revenue that's due to creators and distributors of entertaining and educational materials, from movies and music to books and more. However, attempting to control such illegal activity by effectively revoking the fair use rights that all consumers now have is the wrong direction to move in. The CBDTPA will stifle innovation and give control of our technology (and thus, our whole economy, in truth) to the minority interests from the upper echelon of the Entertainment Industry. Please, I urge you and your colleagues to do what's right for consumers, for everyone, by letting this bill die, and making sure it never gets past you under yet another guise. Sincerely, Brian Philip Bilbrey Sunnyvale, California.

Go NOW to http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/input_form.cfm?comments=1, to leave comments, and see the most recent EFF announcement on the subject here.

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    SUNDAY   
March 24, 2002 -    Updates at 0830

Good morning. Marcia's gone back to bed for an extended sleep-in, and I'm continuing to bring Gryphon the Acer Travelmate back to life as a Gentoo LInux box. I'm most of the way there.

It is also a gorgeous sunny day out there, and I'd best get some yardwork done, after two days of rain. No Costco run today - my soda consumption is way down, we've still got coffee in the freezer, and we're fully stocked on assorted animal flesh as well. So just a grocery store trip later in the day will suit just fine.

I have some Sally pictures to share, as well as a couple of yard snaps from later today, so I'll see you ... later. TTFN

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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.