|
|
HomeGraffitiAboutSitemapVisualDevWork
Email BrianGPG Key |
GRAFFITI -- April 21 thru April 27, 2003>> Link to the current week <<Last Week << Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun >> Next Week Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable. About 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.. |
WebCam
|
MONDAY
Tues
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
April 21, 2003 - Updates at 0745 EST
Good morning. I logged into Hydras last night to test a menu entry. You may recall that Hydras is Tom's RS-6000, a box running AIX 5L. One of the "features" that Tom has configured on the machine is to run a fortune for each user as he logs in. Last night's was very... um... odd:
Proof techniques #2: Proof by Oddity.
SAMPLE: To prove that horses have an infinite number of legs.
(1) Horses have an even number of legs.
(2) They have two legs in back and fore legs in front.
(3) This makes a total of six legs, which certainly is an odd number of
legs for a horse.
(4) But the only number that is both odd and even is infinity.
(5) Therefore, horses must have an infinite number of legs.
Topics is be covered in future issues include proof by:
Intimidation
Gesticulation (handwaving)
"Try it; it works"
Constipation (I was just sitting there and ...)
Blatant assertion
Changing all the 2's to n's
Mutual consent
Lack of a counterexample, and
"It stands to reason"
Indeed. I've had arguments like that before. No one wins, of course. It's the journey that counts, not the goal. It's like gardening - the activity is good for the soul, regardless of the success or failure of any given plant or crop. Note that I did not say farming. Success or failure there is a matter of livelihood - a thing that sucks the soul out of just about any activity, most of the time. I'm one of those odd folk for whom vocation and avocation (computers and such) are effectively the same, and I keep seeming to have fun. Don't ask me how. If I thought too hard about this, the magic might go away. Then an agent would cut the landline and I'd be trapped.
I've got a work-week-lite in front of me. Right now, only Friday is scheduled. I'm likely to work one or two days besides that, but I don't know which. That's both good and bad. Good, in that there's always work around here to fill any available space-time continuum that might appear, long before Eddie's couch can put in an appearance. Bad, though, in that it's hard to actually plan to do anything, because I have to be available.
More later when something actually interesting happens. Have a lovely day!
Mon
TUESDAY
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
April 22, 2003 - Updates at 0756
Good morning. I've been a busy beaver, still. I de-dandylioned the back hill. Hill is perhaps too strong a term. Slope? No, I suppose not, since the only other slope I know is Alaska's North Slope, and that might draw oil prospectors like moths to a flame. The non-level ascending area at the back of the property, that'll do. Anyway, there's not a single dandylion left on it, at the moment. I also amended the soil in the second raised bed. We'll be putting more veg in there shortly. I also spent a few hours doing assorted tasks for ETS: Assisting in an email configuration snafu, an update to the logo, and pumping more data into the new website (don't go looking yet, it's a few weeks off).
Tonight, Scott Kitterman (an occasional correspondent) and family are dropping by. I may have known this before but forgotten that they're just one or two towns over. Marcia's going to be doing some work for the missus, more power to the new Marcia's Makings gig she's got going. And yesterday's late mail brought this comment about my post yesterday:
From: Peter Smith Subject: Thinking Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 08:14:54 +1000 Hi Brian, "If I thought too hard about this, the magic might go away." My wife was a student in London, back when they still had those serious, can't-see-my-feet type fogs. One friend always knew where they were, and infallibly led the group around in thick fogs. One day they sat him down in a pub and made him analyse how he did it - they were maths students, and wanted to know. He tried thinking of everything; echolocation, an innate compass, some subtle changes in the light ... but wasn't able to pin anything down. From that day on, he was always totally disoriented in the fogs. Sometimes, it is better not to ask. Regards, Peter
And now for some linkage. Culled from the SVLUG mailing list, a reasonably priced rack-mounted system house: http://www.linux-1u.net/, although Mike Mills suggested that their spelling skills was somewhat worrisome. Brian Cheesman read the Easter Joke and said he'd received the same thing, except that there was going to be 6 additional weeks of hockey, instead of Winter. Speaking of long German words... okay, we weren't, but I was thinking of them just a moment ago. Unfortunately I fat-fingered the search in Google, and came up with this page about a Guinness Record setting long tongue instead. Whoops? "I'm just proud that now people everywhere can read about me and my tongue," she said. Indeed!
Then there was this article on the Inquirer talking trash about Opera (the browser). Now, I'm not an Opera fanatic, but I found that article to be less than convincing. Bob seemed to think otherwise: "...but what he says is definitely cause for concern". Bunk. Spyware sends packets to un-authorized places. What Opera does is clearly stated here. There are developer responses in this thread on the Opera forums, as well. I like this post by raz-0 at the bottom of the first page:
seriously, I'm amazed opera takes this kind of flack in sucha laid back manner. Folks want to troll a forum that's one thing. But a site that claims to be news providing a venue for this kind of misinformed crap need to get a solid punch in the face. Or translted into modern terms... sued. I kow a punch in the face would be a lot more civilized, but hey, when in rome.
Come on.. you are suspicious of what goes over the network, so you look at what dll's a firewall logs? Howabout you run a packet sniffer and take a good long look instead?
what a moron this guy is.
Okay, it's time and past time. I'll get this posted and get on with my day, whatever it is I'm going to do. Can you tell that I really don't have a sense of that yet? I know, me neither. Enjoy!
Mon
Tues
WEDNESDAY
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
April 23, 2003 - Updates at 0732
Good morning. I'm very nearly as tired as if I'd been working all week, instead of being "off". No, that's not "off" as in fish, gone bad. Just off as in a slow work week. I squidged in some time for ETS and there's more to do there. Also last night I put in a few minutes of phone consult. I've gotten gardening done, and another little suite of projects started. More on that in a moment. But what does the dog do while I slave around house and yard? That's right, that's right! NAP! More naps than cats are even allowed, methinks.
So yesterday morning, instead of starting and finishing my day at this desk, as I am wont to do, I decided to go shopping once again for the bits I need to start building some of the furnishings and such that really will fit our spaces. The starter project is a new footstool/storage box/support for the sewing machine accelerator pedal. I've been owing Marcia one since the last one was both ugly and, um... gone since the move. She's been using a sewing basket, but wanted that back for transit to and from quilting guild and other things.
But I really don't have much in the way of tools. I can do a lot with the Skil-Saw, hand drill and other small stuff, but it's hard to do much in the way of nice-looking pieces. Long square cuts are a real pain. Miters are a double pain. I've been shopping for a table saw for months, looking for the right combination of features and price. I want top of the line. I can't rightly buy the piece of crap that's the bottom of the line. I found the right one today - a Ryobi 10" 15 Amp saw with a decent stand, smack in the middle on price. I also picked up a nice 80 tooth blade for doing clean finish work, and a stacked dado set. That with the 36 tooth blade that comes with the saw should serve me well. So I spent the late morning and early afternoon in assembly.
Then I designed and built Marcia's box. It needs a bit more tweaking, some sanding and finish, but overall, I'm really rather pleased. I setup the saw and cut all my major pieces. Then I setup the stacked head and cut dado slots for the side pieces and the bottom. Glue and a few finish nails had that right together. Then I capped the ends and wrapped the top in a quarter-round, mitering the corners quite nicely. The hardware went on fairly well, although the hinge alignment is off by a smidge, leaving me with a visible skew at one end. Sigh. I'll fix that one way or another before filling, sanding, staining and a couple of coats of polyurethane. Another week or two for this project to finish out.
Enough fun with woodworking and gardening, though. Starting this afternoon, it's back to computers for me. I'll be working the balance of the week, and I might even make a feeble attempt to get to the Linux LUG meeting tomorrow night. But somehow I doubt that - I think Marcia's going to want to go out to supper or something.... See you later, ride easy, eh?
Mon Tues Wed
THURSDAY Fri Sat Sun
April 24, 2003 - Updates at 0645
Howdy. I'd say good morning, but it isn't. Sally had a stroke. She's in the doggy hospital now, and will be through the weekend. At that time, we'll have to evaluate her condition and the situation. But it seems clear now that she had a stroke last week, and a larger one yesterday. Poor little puppy. Sigh.
Jerry, in yesterday's post, pointed to yet another non-pc article by Fred on Everything, this one on the state of education in a piece called The Two Cultures. I personally hesitate to qualify as a culture anything that doesn't value learning. Note that I don't say degrees. Degrees are slightly useful in getting employment, especially in the shill game of public education. Experience counts, thirst for learning and a strong work ethic count. Little else, in my book, does.
Here are some other fine items culled from my reserve in the IMAP folders... Karsten Self writes to the SVLUG list a useful diatribe:
From: Karsten M. Self
Subject: [svlug] OT: vacation responses to list mail
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 08:18:25 +0100I've just received several 'vacation' message responses to mail posted to SVLUG.
If you're going to use an autoresponder, please configure it properly. This means setting it up not to respond to non-personal mail (do you really want to broadcast to the world that you are out of town for a week). If even a small fraction of a typical mailing list sets up such autoresponders, any post to the list is responded to by a flurry of "I'm out of the office" messages. Annoying at the very least, and utterly unnecessary.
I bounce such messages to the abuse@ address for the domain in question. If that message bounces, I forward the bounce to RFC-Ignorant (http://www.rfc-ignorant.org/) for listing. Repeat offenses are treated as, and responded to as, spam.
The original offender is added to my local blacklist -- their messages are rejected from my inbox.
A similar rationale, and response applies to anti-virus autoresponder systems.
Peace.
--
Karsten M. Self
I like that message, polite, stern and firm in its consequences. It's important to consider not just the ease of use when choosing tools for online interaction. Remember that you co-exist with other online denizens who are the recipients of the bandwidth from your fingertips. If your MUA (mail client) can't behave itself as an autoresponder (can anyone say LookOut?) then don't use it as one.
In a different email to SVLUG, Tim Flagg posted the link to his writeup on selected features of Red Hat 9. It's well written and clear - useful stuff. A couple of weeks ago David Thorainsson forwarded me a link to ThenLeave.com a site dedicated to the concept of "IF YOU DON'T LIKE AMERICA...WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU LEAVE!" Excellent idea. Finally, clearing out the bottom of this particular folder, there's a joke courtesy of Dave Markowitz:
An Englishman, a Dutchman and a Frenchman are all in Saudi Arabia, sharing a smuggled crate of booze when, all of a sudden, Saudi police rush in and arrest them. The mere possession of alcohol is a severe offence in Saudi Arabia, so for the terrible crime of actually being caught consuming the booze, they are all sentenced to death! However, after many months and with the help of very good lawyers, they are able to successfully appeal their sentences down to life imprisonment. By a stroke of luck, it was a Saudi national holiday the day their trial finished, and the extremely benevolent Sheik decided they could be released after receiving just 20 lashes each of the whip. As they were preparing for their punishment, the Sheik announced: "It's my first wife's birthday today, and she has asked me to allow each of you one wish before your whipping." The Dutchman was first in line, he thought for a while and then said: "Please tie a pillow to my back. This was done, but the pillow only lasted 10 lashes before the whip went through. When the punishment was done he had to be carried away bleeding and crying with pain. The Frenchman was next up. After watching the Dutchman in horror he Said smugly: "Please fix two pillows to my back." But even two pillows Could only take 15 lashes before the whip went through again and the Frenchman was soon led away whimpering loudly (as they do). The Englishman was the last one up, but before he could say anything, the Sheik turned to him and said: "You are from a most beautiful part of the world and your culture is one of the finest in the world. For this, you may have two wishes!" "Thank you, your Most Royal and Merciful highness", The Englishman replied. "In recognition of your kindness, my first wish is that you give me, not 20, but 100 lashes." "Not only are you an honorable, handsome and powerful man, you are also very brave" the Sheik said with an admiring look on his face. "If 100 lashes is what you desire, then so be it. And your second wish, what is it to be?" the Sheik asked. "Tie the Frenchman to my back."
And on that note, I'd best take my leave of you for the moment. I've got two client sites to get to today, and I'm due at the first in something just under 45 minutes from now. Oh, did I mention that I am now The Answer To Life, The Universe, And Everything? Yep, I'm now 42. Happy birthday to me. Take it easy.
Mon
Tues
Wed
Thu
FRIDAY
Sat
Sun
April 25, 2003 - Updates at
Good morning. Marcia went to visit Sally twice yesterday and says she's doing better. That's good. Right now the vet plans on releasing her back into our care on Saturday. A number of people I've talked to or who have written to us have expressed their sympathy, and in several cases, told of their dogs recovering well from strokes to have several more good years. Thanks for all of your concern and good thoughts - We appreciate it.
Now, go read Dana's clue this morning. Not later, now. It's important - think about it and decide what you want to do. I'll be back to this one soon, so don't forget...
I love working on the Internet. One receives such thoughtful, well reasoned messages:
From: Jon Newman - Bright Gray Sound <redacted>
Reply-To: Jon Newman - Bright Gray Sound <redacted>
To: mailman-owner
Subject: Re: A IE 6.0 patch
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 09:40:39 -0400
Hey Fuck you and take me off your fucking list or I'll track you down and sue your ass!
----- Original Message -----
From: mailman-owner
To: redacted
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 4:00 AM
Subject: A IE 6.0 patch
Hi,This is a IE 6.0 patch
I wish you would enjoy it.
I presume that you do not understand that viruses are pulling their to and from addesses from someone's email address book. The way these things work is that someone that DOES subscribe to one of the lists on our server *AND* has your address also in their outlook or netscape address book had gotten a computer virus. The virus itself writes a complete email, including false headers (so that the originator doesn't get notified about his/her infection), and in this way an email lands in your inbox supposedly from our mailman server. Someone else probably got a virus laden email that appeared to be from you.I did check to be sure that your email address was not subscribed to any of the lists on our server, and you are not. Additionally, running a Linux server as we are, fully updated and immume to Windows-style viruses, we simply couldn't be the source of the mail you have forwarded below.
We certainly appreciate your kind, thoughtful message, though, and look forward to any further words of wisdom you might have for us.
Best regards,
.brian
I'm reasonably certain that someone with his commanding power of the written word will somehow manage to miss my sarcastic deep under-tone. I intended, originally, to share his address in these pages with the spam-trawler-bots of the Internet, but my good nature got the best of me. Some days just aren't long enough for a BOFH-in-training to get all of the good works done, but I try, I try. Now I must fly... have a lovely day.
Mon
Tues
Wed
Thu
Fri
SATURDAY
Sun
April 26, 2003 - Updates at 0900
Well, I must give Jon Newman some small credit for writing back and almost slightly apologizing for his stunningly rude behaviour. I had figured never to hear from him again, either out of ignorance or sheer embarrassment. Perhaps he's just not quite consciensious enough to be embarrassed. Mike tracked down his website for me, and sent contact information. Thanks, but I can't be bothered to correct the world all the time, and this guy can't even run a spell checker on the text on his homepage. It's not worth the effort.
So, good morning. We had a long meeting yesterday afternoon about assorted networking and computing implementation topics related to a facility move that's coming up in a couple of months. Productive and useful, with many decisions taken. Now to buy all this stuff and start getting it together. This will include an 8-port gigabit router built into a Linux box. Did you know that quad port gigabit ethernet cards from Intel are down under 500 dollars? I didn't until yesterday. We'll have some fairly interesting IPTables rulesets there, too.
Sally gets to come home this afternoon. We're also going to have Ebony come over and visit this evening, while we visit with Lee and Jim. When she went to see her yesterday, Marcia said that the mutt was doing much, much better. That's great, I'm pleased to no end. Now on with my day. Take it easy.
Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat
SUNDAY
April 27, 2003 - Updates at 0900
Good morning. Sally's home, and doing alright. Just alright, but that is better than I expected, really. She is much improved over day 0 but is still walking sideways quite a bit, her eyes remind me strongly of Marty Feldman, and it seems that much of the time she's quite afraid. She does know she's home, and know us. But when I curl up on the floor with her, I can hear deep frightened doggy whimpering way down in her chest. She's confused and afraid. For that reason alone I hope she improves quickly.
Last night, Ebony came to stay with Sally while Marcia and I went out with Jim and Lee and Jim and Judy to see the Capitol Steps, a singing comedy troupe (http://www.capsteps.com/). What a hoot. Do go to the site, they have several downloadable audio files to give you a sense of their fine work. Tom Lehrer would have loved it. They tour, and may be coming to a town near you soon. If they do, check them out! An overheard phrase last night from a random audience member: I laughed so hard I think I peed. Seriously... I didn't turn my head to see who. I don't want to know. Really.
Well, I'd best get busy - there's lots to be done and just the one day to do it in. Have a great day.
Last Week << Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun >> 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 © 1999-2003 Brian P. Bilbrey.