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Orb Designs Grafitti July 01 thru July 07, 2002 Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun Last Week  <--  *  -->   Next Week --> Link to the Current Week <-- 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   
July 01, 2001 -    Updates at 0730

Good morning. Look, I'm a bright guy, but there's still a lot I don't know, at least from personal knowledge. I've been reading some very interesting things about Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and a view of Islam that is considerably less pleasant than has been portrayed in the popular press, even post-9/11. Let me take you on a tour of what I've read, and I'll be pleased to hear any feedback on these positions, especially from those that know more about the Koran than I do. What I've found so far gives these sources the "ring of truth", and I'd like to know more.

First, Eric Raymond is a software hacker, gun enthusiast and a polymath. He has so far written four articles in a continuing series on his blog, Armed and Dangerous. They are (oldest listed first, reverse blog order):

• The Mirage of Moderate Islam
• What al-Qaeda Wants
• Mirror, Mirror: Why Americans Don't Understand the Threat of Jihadism
• Why Diplomacy Is Doomed

To give you a taste of what's in store, here's the lead paragraph from the latest in the series:

In Mirror, Mirror: Why Americans Don't Understand the Threat of Jihadism, What al-Qaeda Wants and The Mirage of Moderate Islam, I have described Islam as a warlike and bloody religion subject to periodic fits of violent fundamentalist revival. I have analyzed the roots of Islamic terror in the Koranic duty of jihad, and elucidated Osama bin Laden's goal as nothing less than the destruction of the West and the establishment of a global Islamic theocracy. I have analyzed the reason Americans have trouble comprehending the scope of the threat. Now I'll explain why diplomacy is not a path toards a solution.

Next up, there's Orson Scott Card. I just came across his site during a blog-surfing session, starting at Eric's site, and passing through Shellshocking (that's a funny, sexy, but not work-safe site for you). Anyway, OSC writes well, both in fiction and in fact. He's been writing a column for the The Rhinoceros Times in Greensboro. The columns start on 10-08-2001 and are archived at The Ornery American under the name War Watch. Check those out when you have a bit of free time.

Look. I just don't know enough, and while I pay attention... I think I'd better get a copy of the Koran and see what I can learn for myself.

Goldfinger is rebuilt and running sweetly. We packed more stuff yesterday. Today is dog bath day, and a bunch of other running around, errand-like chores to be done. I suppose I'd best get to it. Take care!

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Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
July 02, 2002 -    Updates at 0730 and 1415

Good morning. I awoke with a headache this morning. No big surprise, as I've allowed myself to run out of Coca-Cola. Knocking back a case a week of the stuff can't be good for me, so I'm letting it go. But this increases the hemoglobin levels in my caffeine/glucose stream, and my body won't be used to that for a while. I am going to keep my single morning cup of coffee. That's starting to soak in as I write this, and the headache is starting to abate.

As a break from packing for our cross-country jaunt, I'm moving another domain into Rocket, the server that Greg and I co-administer. This one's a simple web/mailinglist setup, so I'll use it to tune up the long-promised Mailman/SuExec mini-Howto. Also on for today, all of the paints and such that we've accumulated over the years are going to the recycling center. It'll cost a bit, but that's better than this crap just going into the landfill, which is what would happen if I were to bag it and put it in the trash. And of course, that's illegal here. But this law makes sense. Unlike "global warming science", groundwater contamination from landfills is a well-documented pollution source. So that's early on my errand list for today.

I'm reviewing Craig Hunt's TCP/IP Networking book, to see what's changed since the last edition. He's actually got a fair amount of server installation and setup stuff in this one, from BIND and Sendmail to other service daemons that primarily depend on network connectivity for their livelyhood. One thing I find that's important for me is to go and actually read the RFCs as they're referenced in the book. That is useful for me, but some of them are pretty ... dry. I'm using this as a filler in-between the MySQL and PHP related readings that I'm slowly grinding through. All in all, I'm learning a lot, and I like that immensely.

Riddle me this: You've got American warplanes in the air, still working to target the rag-tag ends of the oppressive regime that was enslaving your nation. Do you (A) wave and cheer as the planes fly by? Or (B) ignore the planes and the current circumstances, and in the course of celebrating a wedding, fire weapons into the air in a concentrated manner. OK, so you're silly enough to do (B). Tell me, what are the likely consequences? What does this look like FROM THE AIR? Ah, an attack by hostile forces on the aircraft. OK. So, what is a warplane supposed to do in the event of hostile fire? Take out the hostiles? Bingo, you've got it. Yet here we have our local news station interviewing morons people who say that American military forces should be more cognizant of local customs. Um, how about the locals should be more aware of forces in their area on a mission of interdiction and not behave like idiots firing weapons into the air while warplanes are about. Sheesh. Next time, of course, it will just look like a wedding, and the plane will fly low and slow enough to check it out much more carefully, and up comes the Stinger. Count coup again for al-Qaeda. Feh!

Meantime, one of my wonderful Senators has taken the time and effort to send me email about the work she's been doing on Capitol Hill, on my behalf...

Sen. Boxer Obtains Funding to Fight Oak Disease
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2002 19:37:16 -0700

Dear Friend:

Sudden Oak Death is a disease with the potential to devastate a unique California symbol, the California Live Oak, plus thousands of our state's grandest trees. I have been fighting the battle against this disease, working to gain the necessary funds for scientists, arborists and others to protect our state's precious trees. I have good news to report.

The Senate Appropriations Committee agreed to allocate $5 million to help combat Sudden Oak Death Syndrome. The funds were approved as part of the Fiscal Year 2003 Interior Appropriations bill currently working its way through Congress. The bill will now go to the full Senate for consideration.

...

Wow, I am SO glad that Barbara Boxer is up there in Washington looking out for my interests... Oh, wait. I didn't ask her to work on that one. Mmmmm. I suppose that I'd best get into the bulk of my day before I start frothing at the mouth. See y'all later!

1415 - Lest I be further berated, let me set the record straight. The dying oaks are a real problem out here, and I do care about that, even with us leaving the state. My issue with Boxer is that this is the first time in several months that I've received an email update on the important things she's been working on. What with the Middle East, Afghanistan, Indian v. Pakistan, a tanking economy, job exports, soaring trade imbalances, corporate book cooking and all that, the most important thing she can think about to tell me she's on top of is TREES!!!! Get her the hell off the Hill, and put someone in that wants to WORK for a living.

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Mon    Tues    WEDNESDAY    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
July 03, 2002 -    Updates at

Howdy. I really haven't the faintest idea why, but I feel fairly refreshed today. That's odd, because I certainly haven't slacked off in any real sense. Maybe it's just that it's later in the day than usual, I've performed all the morning's ablutions, the coffee and breakfast have had time to soak in a bit. Whatever. Oh, the latest heatwave has broken, too. I'm sure that's a big help.

Time to go surfing... Bob Thompson has some interesting thoughts on the Walmart Lindows PC, reflecting the thoughts of others, that this may not be entirely a Good Thing... Well, a bunch of sites read later, I find that while there's lots of stuff going on, some of which I could really get my dander up about, I intend not to, today. My lovely Marcia suggested that I take it just slightly easier today, and perhaps I will. I might even go to the SVLUG meeting tonight. Who knows?

Oh, hey, did you miss yesterday afternoon's mini-post? I did too, as I forgot to run my publish script after writing the darned thing. Marcia caught that little foop aaahhh, and I got it out late last night. Ah, well. See you around.

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Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
July 04, 2002 -    Updates at 0630

Good morning. What a nice way to start the day...

Subject: Emacs Tutorial
Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2002 16:33:54 +0900 (JST)
From: Charles Muller

Dear Mr. Bilbrey,

As a Linux and Emacs newbie, I would like to thank you for your clearly written and accessible tutorial.

I have just finished reading _Learning GNU Emacs_, and while I learned a lot, it seems that that book, like some others, is getting badly out of date in terms of its lack of explanation of the usage of some of the more important major modes, such as Mule, SGML/HTML, etc. I am an XML resource developer (online CJK Dictionaries--see my web site if you like). Up to now I have been building these resources using MS Word in "encoded text" mode, along with XML Spy.

But I would really like to be free from the Microsoft trap, and to be able to work in Linux. Emacs seems to be the key, but the problem is accessibility for neophytes. Your piece serves well as a beginning, but I do hope that you and others who are skilled with Emacs might write some tutorials that deal with customization, Macros, SGML/HTML and so forth.

Regards,

Charles Muller

Thanks for your kind words. I've got a lot on my plate just now, but I'll work up some proposals for IBM DevWorks' consideration on the more advanced topics you recommend, and append your email as a vote!

And thus I learn that my new tutorial, Living in Emacs, is online (registration, login required), and top of the pops, at the IBM developerWorks site. As usual, thanks go out to my friends at Studio B for putting together the deal. If your company needs accurate and targeted technical writing, you can do no better than to talk to Studio B. Oh, about the registration gig. That's IBM's way of measuring how effective their efforts are in supporting Linux and other development areas. I've never gotten spammed or solicited to the address I used to register with. And we do want to encourage IBM to continue supporting Open Source, as well as buying more tutorials from me, right? So sign up and read it! Now back to our regular programming...

Oh, wait, I haven't got any regular programming. We're starting to get serious about finding a place to live in Maryland, so I'm combing the ads at the Washington Post site (an awkward proposition), and we're working with a realtor back there to make things all work out. There are already a couple of strong possibilities, as long as we can convince them to take a dog. But all I need to do then is direct their attention to the Sally page that Marcia maintains.

Now to get busy on the rest of my day. See you around!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
July 05, 2002 -    Updates at 0545 and 1700

Good morning. Sorry, we've got a very busy day ahead. I'll be back here tonight.

1700 - Hullo. Yet another day spent preparing for the impending move. We spent a chunk of the morning going over the home rental adverts for the areas in Maryland where we'd especially like to live. After talking over the properties with the real estate agent that's representing us, we put in an application for one. While it's not perfect, it certainly is much larger, on a very much larger lot, for quite a lot less money than what we're paying now in Sunnyvale. While that's not a huge surprise (everything's smaller, and more expensive, in SillyCon Valle, it sure is refreshing. And it doesn't have to be everything for us, just good enough to hold us while we find someplace to buy in the next year or so. We'll see what happens on Monday when this bunch runs their own credit check, and falls all over themselves getting us signed up.

One thing's for certain. It is going to be hotter, and much more humid than I have ever been used to. That'll take a bit of acclimatization, but I'm sure I'll get there. It may be easier for Marcia, since she grew up in Michigan, another rather humid spot in the summertime.

Subject: Thanks for a great emacs tutorial!
From: Ram Smith
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 19:49:57 +1000

G'day Brian,

I'm just dropping you a line to say thanks for writing such a good emacs tutorial. In a fine combination of a well written toot and my determination to "grok emacs this time or else" I finally feel at home experimenting with the program.

so... Cheers and keep up the good work!

ram.

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