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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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September 09, 2002 - Updates at 1200 EDT
Good morning, almost. I went in to work for a while, thinking I might update from there. But after scheduling out my week, this is a short day, so I'm home again. That's fine, there's lots to do, from car shopping to Linux stuff, to garage work. I'll get started on one or more of those tasks shortly.
But I forgot to take note of something notable last week. And now it's past: This daily journal has continued virtually uninterrupted since September 6 of 1999 (although there's some dribs and drabs from July of that year). So Happy belated Anniversary to Graffiti. Last year this time, we were just settling into the house on Mary Avenue in Sunnyvale, having foresworn apartment living for good. In early September the year before that, I was working hard at two jobs, one of them eventually becoming Brian and Tom's Linux Book, following a loss of personnel and heart at our publishers. That very first week, just three years ago, I was on about books, Microsoft, work, and other such. My, how time flies when you're having fun.
For a significant percentage of other bloggers, journal-ists, and daynoters, the adventure of writing online has seemed to pall over time. Fortunately (for me, hopefully for you as well), I've generally kept my spirits up about writing in this arena. I find that it provides me with the occasional soapbox, a cathartic release from time to time, a place to document what I've done and what I've learned (so that we can all find it again later), and many other lesser purposes as well.
Okay. I shall wax neither poetic nor maudlin. I continue to enjoy myself in this space, and the number of page reads indicates that several of y'all apparently do as well. Thanks for reading, and for dropping an email in my box from time to time. I'll see you back here soonest.
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September 10, 2002 - Updates at 0710
Good morning. To the left you can see the type of vehicle we've settled on. While our Benz continues to run, it really isn't suited to be a running around commuter/consultant kind of car. The stop and go dance on the beltway is going to kill it dead dead dead, and with a window and radio that don't anymore, we came to the conclusion that it was time to move on. So after reviewing all the small UTE's and wagons, basing our comparison on the Subaru Outback and Forester, we ended up settling on the Hyundai Santa Fe. All the features we want, decent gas mileage, good towing capacity (should we get that camping trailer one day), a 60 month bumper to bumper, and good reviews from the independents. We haven't bought it yet, but we've got the actual vehicle picked out, and we're going to go test drive it late this afternoon. The Vehix.com and Autobytel sites were invaluable in helping us make our selection.
I've got another system simulator package in, courtesy of Virtutech and Moshe, so that I can do some more on the side for OpenMosix. It's called Simics, and this isn't your mother's VMware... heh. Simics is real, instrumented system simulator software. It's not designed to run fast, it's designed to be complete, and to allow lowest level event tracing. How "not fast", you ask? Just for fun, after working with the Simics First Steps tutorial, I started a load of Mandrake 9 rc2 into a new test machine. That was a little over thirteen hours ago. It's now about a third of the way through the package installation phase. I figure I can finish it up tomorrow night, after work. The good news is that once it's done, I can checkpoint the installation, and create multiple instances of it for testing purposes. However, I think that the real vehicle for OpenMosix testing for me will be either Debian or Gentoo, depending on how effectively I can get networking running early in the installation process, in the simulated machine. Probably the former, because compiling software in Simics is likely to be... a bit of a drag. Certainly I won't be using this for distro reviews of any kind - I'll still be working on Red Hat Null when the Unix Epoch ends in 2037.
Now to work with me - I've got a documentation day ahead, one of several to do for a client in the same building as the office I work in. Isn't that convenient? Later!
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September 11, 2002 - Updates in the morning
My heart is still broken. I didn't know any of the people who died in the Terrorist Attacks on our soul, on our soil, a year ago today. Still, my heart is broken. There were heros a-plenty, the firefighters, police, port authority personnel and just plain folks who went up those stairwells to rescue one more, when every fiber of their being must have been screaming "DOWN, you moron!"
There's enough retrospective crap on TV to choke a chicken. I think it's overdone, all about ratings, and marketing and all the shit that really doesn't matter. But when I watch some of it anyway, I remember. My heart is broken. It doesn't disable me, nor make me disfunctional. I think, I pay attention to the signals of my body and my emotions, generally enjoy life still. But without any prompting at all, I think of this day one year ago, and the world stops for a few seconds, for a few minutes, while I go back there. My initial disbelief, followed by shock, followed by anger, rage. RAGE! Oh, yes, that's still there. I've not been much of one for violence in this life, but I could find it in me to impale those who conceived, aided and executed these acts of Terrorism on my countrymen. On my might-have-been friends whom I will now never meet. I could use a blunt instrument on them slowly, eyeball to eyeball, and watch them die.
That might not be good for me. I wonder, I worry, if I might enjoy that. But, you see, my heart is broken.
There are politicians, bureaucrats, knaves and fools all, who are taking advantage of our vulnerability to entrench themselves. They're finishing the job that the Terrorists started. They're taking away what it means to be an American. They whittle away at our rights, and our freedom and our privacy. They are terrorists, too. Only we elected, elevated these assholes. Or worse, they've taken their appointed duties, and perverted them into some kind of exotic, ironic travesty of a public servant's role. I need to fight these things, too, these people who would finish what fundamentalist Islamic evil started.
My heart is broken. The events of last year don't rule my life. But I won't forget, not ever.
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September 12, 2002 - Updates at 0715
Good morning. One more day passed by, and life goes on. After a week or two of pregame show, you'd think that the full day of network hoopla yesterday would be enough. But the post-game analysis is going to be running now, for a while. Should we have gone to "Orange" alert? What did we do differently yesterday than we did in the days before? Search more grandmothers on the jetway? Ah, that's right. Anti-aircraft batteries ringing the capitol. But, our "enemies" don't have an official airforce. The AA must indicate that they powers that be don't trust the airport security measures. So why are they inflicting all that crap on us, then? Sigh. The bureaucratic mentality. How lovely!
Okay, enough. I had a partially productive day at work yesterday, solving one problem with a borked MySQL installation, and narrowing the potential solution space for another issue, in another network. That's not bad, I suppose. Today I'll be working in the office in the morning, and at a client site in the afternoon.
I didn't pick up the Santa Fe last night, as they had to order in a sensor that was malfunctioning. I figured it would be better to just have it right before delivery, rather than have to come back for a repair a couple of days down the road. So tonight or tomorrow morning is my new plan.
That's all there is for now. More when more happens. Stay alert, protect yourselves and your freedom.
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September 13, 2002 - Updates at 0800
I've slept in just a little bit this morning, as my first gig of the day is at 1100, down in the District. I did pick up the new car last night, but Marcia has gotten to drive it (Blue, we've named this Santa Fe.) to work today, as I think it's better to take Lemon (the Blazer) down to DC, especially into the particular cramped little parking garage that I have to use. It's safe from theft, but not from doors and drivers there. I know that it'll get dings, sooner than later, but not there, not first. Pictures this weekend, or Monday, depending.
Happy Friday, everyone! I talked to our friends Mark and Bonnie out in Colorado last night. I'd talked to Bonnie before the move, then we manage to not hook up again until last night. Unfortunately, my prompt was getting a Klez-ridden email that must have come from their machine, given the names it was spoofing, and the ARIN records of the source IP in the mail message headers. I gave them some strong advice: Get your data off, reformat the drive, reinstall Windows and applications, virus check your data and finally restore the clean data. I also may have said something about a sledgehammer or a baseball bat. That part of the conversation is a little blurry. Heh.
If I were there, I'd hook them up with Linux, Evolution for email, OpenOffice.org for office applications, and Mozilla for browsing. They'd do fine with that, and their vulnerability would be way down. But I'm not about to talk someone who doesn't use the computer more than a few times a month through a Linux install. Maybe next time I'm out that way, however.
Well, I got one email in response to Wednesday's post...
Subject: Wednesday
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 08:48:41 EDTI couldn't let your writing of yesterday go by without saying I have felt exactly the same way, going through life in a normal fashion, brokenhearted on the inside. Once in a while I peek under the cover, and the horror and sorrow is still there, still fresh. But then we never really got over seeing President Kennedy shot, and the days that followed that still bring tears.
As we went through yesterday, there were all the sad songs on the radio, and Paul Harvey, and the reading of the names of the victims. At the city hall across from the store where I work, there was a ceremony, coffee and doughnuts, all the old veterans in their uniforms, singing, and the laying of a wreath.
As I waited for the bus home after work, kids were riding their bikes, people walked by in their patriotic t-shirts, the sun was shining, and the bells in the school tower played "America the Beautiful". Cars still have their flags on the antennas, and the signs at stores still say "God Bless America". And I thought---they (the terrorists) hate all this. Why?
It's like the first time in school when you find out another kid hates you, even though you haven't done anything to him. Jealousy? Or maybe because you're a little different from him? Whatever, he hates you, and will probably dog you all through the school years and try to make you miserable.
When one of the Kennedys was shot -- I forget which one, someone said "We'll never laugh again". And someone else said, "Oh, we'll laugh again; we'll just never be young again".
Take care, and keep caring. It may be our only defense.
Marcia H. from WV
Exactly. Thanks!
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September 14, 2002 - Updates at 0827
Another terror plot foiled: Janet Reno's vote recount request rejected!
Good morning. It was a good day yesterday. Nice weather, reasonably successful client visits, and a bit of work on the house and car here in the late afternoon. The house work was a bit of an unplanned event. I was going to check out a couple of things on Lemon (the Chevy Blazer), so I popped open the garage door. One of the counterbalance tension springs was originally installed in such a manner that it was binding rather badly, as well as grinding a groove in the wall with each cycle of the door. What needed doing was remounting a couple of the pulleys into locations that better suited the rather odd installation that we inherited. Then I took a bit of Masonite and screwed it to the wall in position to buffer the travelling pulley so that it doesn't eat the house. That's a good thing.
Working on the truck was another issue. There have been a couple of lingering problems, one important and the other less so. To pass the Maryland vehicle safety inspection, I'm going to need two working headlights. However, one wasn't. So I did some basic checking of connections and whatnot, then cycled the light. It's just the lowbeam that's blown. Typical. So for that, I'm off to Pep Boys this morning to pick up a replacement. Next, for more than a year, the driver's side window hasn't worked at all. Ah, the joys of electric windows. Finally I got around to demounting the switch panel assembly from the door, and checking that out. Lovely. It's a sealed unit. Fortunately, the wire connections are external, so I simply swapped the wires around to see if the switch was the problem. No joy. It's either the motor, or connections thereto. It would further appear that actually removing the door panel is a major pain in the patootie. So I'm stymied there for the time being.
On the Linux side of life, I've now got Garcia booting both Red Hat Null and Mandrake 9 RC 2. I'm taking notes for the writeups to appear soon on LinuxMuse. That might be good news to one or more people. Especially to Greg, who's had to shoulder most of the load himself while picking up a fresh set of skills in a new position at his company.
Also, we may head over to the Maryland Renaissance Festival this afternoon, if the weather holds. I used to attend the Faire out in California with reasonable regularity, years and years ago. They're generally a whole lot of fun! If done, pictures will certainly be forthcoming from that entertainment.
Okay, it's time and past time. I need to get over to the auto parts joint. See you around.
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September 15, 2002 - Updates at 0830
Wow. That ended my day yesterday on a bad note... Warren Zevon is dying. He's been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, and has just weeks left according to the doctors. He's going to spend time with his kids, and record a few more tunes in the studio. There's this, from the article:
"I'm OK with it, but it'll be a drag if I don't make it 'till the next James Bond movie comes out," Zevon, 55, joked in a statement, released by spokeswoman Diana Baron. (The next Bond film, titled "Die Another Day," comes out...)
Zevon's music has been memorable for me. Aside from the perennial favorite Werewolves of London, I'm particularly fond of Lawyers, Guns and Money as well as Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner. That last one there makes Roland a particularly good name for a server/firewall appliance (being "headless", gunning down attacks, etc).
Good morning. I had a fairly effective day yesterday. I got the headlight replaced on Lemon. Then I started working on the actual writing of the Mandrake and Red Hat article I've been blithering about, for LinuxMuse. I got about halfway through yesterday, so that's good. I'll try to finish it up today early enough for Greg to do a walkthrough on it, and get it posted tomorrow. Of course, I had time for that because when we tried to go to the Maryland Renaissance Festival yesterday afternoon, bad traffic, really bad traffic, caused our abrupt reversal of direction. The faire runs well into October, so I imagine that we'll get there sooner or later. Aside from working on the article, today is also for cleaning, laundry, a run to the store or two. A typical Sunday routine. I hope your's goes as nicely.
Our friend Pat writes in from the left coast with a pointer to a poem about 9/11 that came along on NPR this last week, by Andrei Codrescu. It's called 9/11 (with Allen Ginsberg in mind). Follow the link to read it if you wish, I found it worthwhile.
Have a good day, see you around. If anything extremely interesting happens, I'll be back to tell you about it. Later!
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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.
