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GRAFFITI -- July 21 thru July 27, 2003>> Link to 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.. |
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July 21, 2003 - Updates at 0715 EST
Good morning. Yesterday's post that saw two sides of RMS caused an issue for at least one friend...
From: Dave Browning
Subject: Please excuse this rant
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 09:47:53 -0500Brian,
Would you please make up your mind? Is RMS a (money == food, rent and other nice things)-challenged moron or not?
Software is a tool used to accomplish a purpose. As I understand it, Larry McVoy specifically customized BitKeeper to do the things Linus wanted. The only thing that he gets out of this is publicity for his company. As I understand it, BitMover (McVoy's company) not only allows the free use of the BitKeeper client, but also provides the server and the bandwith that those kernel developers use. And I don't think they have ever gotten anything except the publicity and Linus' thanks.
Oh, wait BitMover has gotten one other thing for free. The flack from a bunch of losers in the free software crowd who can do nothing but whine that BitKeeper isn't free. If you don't like the fact that Linus uses non-free software, please use GNU/Hurd. What GNU/Hurd doesn't do anything useful yet? I wonder why not? The sensible thing to do if one objects to the BK license is to write a client and SERVER which form a better system and make it open source.
Dave
<GRIN> Like many others, there are things for which I hold RMS in high regard, and others for which I think he is indeed a bit... off-base. I thought that the contrast would be useful. I do clearly say that I think Larry's in the right, don't I?
Yesterday was fun... for me, and good for Marcia. The latter item first: Marcia headed off to work, then thought better of it and came home to work on getting rid of that pesky cold she picked up in California. Apparently they don't like you having colds when you're going in for surgery. The good news is she's feeling considerably better this morning.
My fun was picking up a DVD burner. A Plextor PX-504A to be explicit. It runs like a champ - playing, reading and writing CDs and DVDs. I spent most of the late afternoon and evening working on finding and/or modifying a tool to do multi-disc backups. That's been a bit more problematic. I'll report back here when I have more success.
Today's starting late, (my fault for letting the alarm not alarm me too much this morning) and going to be busy, as usual for a Monday. I'd best get the trash out, and me on the road.
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July 22, 2003 - Updates at
Good evening. Wait, did you just hear Alfred Hitchcock, too? Cool! I was out the door at 0630, and I've yet to have supper (though I did have a double handful of saltwater taffy, courtesy of friend Jim. It was a busy day, partly productive and partly confusing. We're still getting ramped up for the big move, and there's lots to be done, not enough time, and smack in the middle of vacation time for several key figures, as well as Marcia's surgery. She comes first, needless to say.
Thanks for your patience, more tomorrow when I get a chance! See ya!
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July 23, 2003 - Updates at 2104
Yeah, twice in a row... Good evening. Another busy day just about wiped from the face of Time. Two client stops, a celebratory luncheon, oil changed in the Elantra, backups completed here (and not happily, yet, unfortunately) - a lot accomplished - all except a post here at a decent hour.
Backups to the Plextor PX-504A work pretty well, just not scripted yet. There are a variety of backup tools out there, but many of them don't talk in DVD sizes yet. For instance, to specify the size of a DVD disc in Perl requires a special module to get "big" integers. Otherwise it just wraps and or looks negative to the script. So I got BigInt from CPAN, and when I "use" it, it breaks the lstat functions that allow the script (multicd, in this case) to detect directories for backup. Borked, and hard.
All the same, I've got everything backed up to DVD, and many fewer discs than when I was using CDR for the same purpose. That took 15 discs, just to get the most important stuff. Now I've got it all on 5, and that's a full image of Marcia's system as well as almost all of Goldfinger here. A combination of scripted processes and manual writing to DVD+RW is the answer. The other problem is that the +R/RW camp's dramatic rise in status has caught several projects behind by quite a bit. CDrecord doesn't talk +R/RW at all, and CDrecord-dvdPRO only talks to the Ricoh brand yet, apparently. I found this suite: DVD+RW/+R for Linux plus a HOWTO, and that's how I've got all this working.
There's lots of action around the world, from New York to Mosul, from Los Angeles to Linden, Utah. You can find most of that yourselves. I'll be more lively soon, probably. There's just so much going on at the moment. See you tomorrow.
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July 24, 2003 - Updates at 0647
Good morning. A short post last night, a postively miniscule one this morning. Since today is the last day of work before at least one day, and possibly several, off to be primary-care-giver-man, I've got lots to do. Some SFP modules expected from Dell haven't arrived, and there's a move stage this weekend requiring connectivity up-county. So I'm going to whip up a Debian Linux bridge for the other end of the 20 mile light pipe, to match the Linux router in place at the current site. I've got one of my lucky Linux shirts on (lucky in that the company is still in business, neh?) and all should be well.
If I don't catch you here for a day or two, fret not. Think good thoughts for Marcia and her surgery tomorrow. When I have a chance, I'll post a brief update here. Thanks for dropping by.
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July 25, 2003 - Updates at 1800
Sigh of relief... Good evening. I'm home, Marcia is resting comfortably in her hospital room, up the road a-piece. Thanks for all the kind emails - we both appreciate it greatly. Her procedure was fine, uneventful and done by 1230. She's taking liquids already, and the doctor's plan has her coming home on Sunday, all things being equal. I'm going to wind-down just a little bit. So have a good evening. See ya!
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July 26, 2003 - Updates at 0955
Good morning. I've a little new news - Marcia called this morning, they've got her up and around a little bit. She's off of the PCA (Patient-Controlled Analgesia, morphine), having only pressed the button 8 times since surgery. Woo, that's great! Today they put her on oral meds, and we work on successful system restarts, intestinal fortitude and such-like. I'm headed over there in a couple of minutes with a book or two, as well as a deck of cards. She said that I had to bring a notepad too, to keep score on. I said, "Why, I already know I'm going to win, so I might as well..." She cut me off at the pass. So I'm bringing a score pad. <Grin> The yard is watered, and a couple more tomatoes are harvested into finish ripening in the kitchen. I've got both kinds of squash fruiting finally, too.
I'd best be on my way. Have a lovely day, and thanks for your support.
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July 27, 2003 - Updates at 1335
And she's home... A shade over 50 hours, door to door. The duty nurse emphatically used the word "motivated" when referring to Marcia's progress. Marcia went from liquid to soft to solid diet yesterday, came off her IV this morning, got a sonogram done of her gall bladder, hopped (metaphorically) into the shower, then called me and said, "I'm coming home." So here we are. She's resting/napping in front of the TV now, and I've plenty of errands and chores to keep me busy in the meantime. But I wanted to give y'all a quick update - She's doing GREAT!!! Thanks for all the kind emails and calls. We're also spending some of our energy beaming good thoughts at Lenore Thompson, who came through a surgery on Friday, and woke up feisty on Saturday. Huzzah and keep up the good progress, Lenore!
Now I need to head back down to the pharmacy and pick up a couple of prescriptions for my love. No guest head today, but I do have a bonus question for you. On Red Dwarf, where did the second polymorph hide, where it eventually died of old age? Now, have a great Sunday, what's left of it, anyway. Byeeeeeee.
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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 © 1999-2003 Brian P. Bilbrey.
