EMAIL - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy, say so, I will respect that. Be aware, though, that I am (usually) human and make mistakes.

Sorry I didn't make it back last night. I kicked Chapter 2 up to the big guy for a slash and burn. Did 3 reinstalls of the two different versions of OpenLinux I have, in preparation for writing the installation chapter, coming next. Then there is the kernel upgrade saga... almost complete - I can see the wisps of smoke rising from the shattered ruins on the approaching shoreline. Hmmm. Not quite what I expected - where's this land of plenty I was promised? Heh.

As noted over the weekend, on Friday, June 9, kernel hacker Alan Cox released kernel 2.2.16 unto the world. This is a significant security upgrade - there are several small thingies fixed, and a huge hole in the RPC (portmapper) that are repaired. This means that everyone who is using a current distribution, running 2.2.14-X, really ought to upgrade. Later Friday, a couple of bugs turned up in 2.2.16. No big deal - by yesterday Alan had put out a patch called 2.2.16combo (actual link to the patch file there).

My problem - as usual, I don't know enough. When I applied the patch by normal means:

[root@grendel src]# patch -p0 < /home/brian/2.2.16combo

... the patch failed to apply. Upon examination of the patch file, I see that it is looking for source trees called linux.vanilla and linux.17p1, but none called linux, which is the source tree directory created by unpacking a kernel tarball. I sent a mail of personal stupidity out to the local mailing list, and while I waited, tried something obvious (to me...)

[root@grendel src]# ln -sf linux linux.17p1 # creates a symbolic link of the correct name
[root@grendel src]# patch -p0 < /home/brian/2.2.16combo # applies the patch

That worked like a charm. Also, I am told after the fact (by Rick Moen, Thanks!), that the correct method is to apply the following version to make the patch work... run from the location /usr/src/linux (in the tree):

[root@grendel linux]# patch -p1 < /home/brian/2.2.16combo

Which also works, and strips the first directory entry off each patch file specification (whereas -p2 would strip 2 directory entries off, etc). I sort of knew that, but wasn't sure what the meaning of a renamed kernel tree was. I was able to compile the kernel successfully, but I have apparently left out a couple of driver modules, so just a little more work to do on that tonight.

Hope your upcoming (or progressing) day and week are most excellent, thanks for dropping by. See you soon. TTFN.

Hi, there. Couple of quick items... first, got the 2.2.16 kernel patched, correct modules selected, compiled, installed and running at the gates. Here's the process, start to spinach:

1. Get the 2.2.16 kernel from www.kernel.org
   
2. Get the 2.2.16 combo patch from Alan Cox's pages
   
3. su to root, then... mv linux-2.2.16.tar.gz /usr/src/. # move the tar and patch files to /usr/src
mv 2.2.16combo /usr/src/.
cd /usr/src
mv linux linux.old.version # preserve the prior version
tar zxf linux-2.2.16.tar.gz # unpack the tar file (makes about 75 M)
cd linux
patch -p1 < ../2.2.16combo # apply the patch, now we're ready

   
4. {Compilation steps}
   make mrproper
make xconfig # this starts a tcl/tk app to configure the kernel. See -A-, below
make dep
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

   
5. {Install various bits}
   mv /boot/vmlinuz /boot/vmlinuz.old # preserve the previous running kernel
mv /boot/System.map /boot/System.map.old # ditto the System.map file
cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.16
ln -sf /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.16 /boot/vmlinuz # make a symlink to the new kernel
cp /usr/src/linux/System.map /boot/System.map-2.2.16
ln -sf /boot/System.map-2.2.16 System.map # ditto for System.map.


6. Modify /etc/lilo.conf

   ...
   image=/boot/vmlinuz  # this points to the new kernel, now.
   	label=linux
   	root=/dev/hda6
   	append=""
   	read-only
   image=/boot/vmlinuz.old.version  # create this entry to point to working kernel
   	label=2214               # to have a fall back position
   	root=/dev/hda6
   	append=""
   	read-only

7. Run lilo:

   [root@grendel etc]# lilo
   Added floppy
   Added linux *
   Added 2214
   

8. -A- Reboot, test, figure out which modules you forgot to set up in make xconfig, and redo until it's right. Not hard, and the kernel works right underneath all the stuff that's installed - no problems, no having to re-install apps or nuthin'. Just patience and persistence.

Secondly, Steve Ballmer got skewered by Jim Lehrer tonight on Newshour (PBS). If you've missed it already (you can always tape the late-night re-run), then try to catch the RealMedia version at this address (I have to try this myself, 'cause I haven't yet). Now to writing. G'night.

Good Morning. Much fun and trouble in River CIty. Which is unfortunate, since there is a long way from here. Is it really only Tuesday? It feels much later in the week some-(yawn)-how. There wasn't a vast quantity of mail, though one bit envisioned Peter Boyle playing Steve Ballmer, especially thinking of "Puttin' on the Ritz". Heh. Thanks for the image, Deidre.

Before I forget, head on over to useit.com and check out Jakob Nielsen's Customers as Designers. As usual, interesting and thought provoking. Must fly, have a lovely day, back later. TTFN.

18:00 - Welcome to Hell. The wall thermostat is pegged at about 112 F (44C) inside, with fans and aircon running. Outside in the sun, it's just miserable, unless you're having water thrown on you, like the plants in the Bilbrey patio farm are - they're actually doing quite well, though in these temperatures I like to water them morning, noon and night. Given wage slavery, that works out to 0700, 1700 and 2100. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

More pix than usual (since I was watering, I thought the camera might like an adventure, too). Got snaps of the flowers, since they have finally begun to recover from nesting birds ripping them off right left and sideways. Additionally, the tomatos are fruiting in great sufficiency, and with enough bulk to make up for a shot or two. If you hate these photo farms, sorry, I like'm.

Now to figure out how to use Perl to automatically generate the table I want to use for a Package reference in Appendix B. Hmmm. Perhaps an rpm -q -f * ... nah! It's either program it or slog through on my own, manually correlating. Guess which is more reliable (once debugged) {grin}. Have a lovely evening.


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In the voice of Matthew Broderick, in the movie of Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues, "...this is like Africa hot!" The inside thermostat indicates that the temperature is over 85 at that part of the wall. Air temperature feels less than that, but who knows - at this moment it's only 06:33 and that's too damn hot. Temperature records are falling to the wayside right, left, and sideways, with more to go today. Plus, we're in the middle of a 4 day run of "Spare the Air" days, to keep down air pollution, since the inversion layer always does an extra-special good job of trapping the crap in weather like this. Hmmm.

Good morning! When I don't sleep well because it never got cool enough, popping "Who Made Who" in the cup holder is a great set of songs for waking up with. Especially Hells Bells. Email was dead last night right through into this morning - I presume that, unlike me, everyone else went and sat in shallow, cool water, rather than be near a computer.

I made progress though, once I got a fresh ISO of eDesktop 2.4. I didn't bother to burn a fresh disk, since I only need selected bits. Instead, I mounted the ISO image into the file tree using the loopback filesystem - this allows me to mount files as though they were partitions/devices. Then I copied out the files I needed, and started fiddling with parsing, querying and building tables with Perl. This will work fine. Should finish today with Appendix B, since I am going to bail from work after lunch, come home and start slogging away at it.

That said, I had better hit the road. Have an interesting day. Catch the Farm Pix above if you're interested. Later.

16:33 - Hey, look at me, Ma - I'm in a Convection Oven Apartment that is up around 110 F inside. Actually, it's not *quite* that hot inside, but it's certainly near 100, and over that outside. Hmmm. Had a little exchange today:

bilbrey,

I saw your web site and thought I'd ask you about granitecanyon - "The
Public DNS". I'm trying to set up my zone files but it doesn't seem to be 
working. Did you ever get your zone file to work?

Any suggestions - if you have time.

-Chris

Yes, I did, but that was long ago, in a galaxy far, far away... now I
have Register.com host my DNS and MX records, and I access them via web
forms. I would look long and hard at the sample files provided at granite
canyon, try filling in the blanks properly and takes a little guess work.
I don't have that info anymore, but I did end up purchasing a copy of DNS
& Bind from O'Reilly. You might also have a look at
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/DNS-HOWTO.html. It's linux oriented, but
the information is mostly OS agnostic.

Good luck.

Thanks for the reply - I do have a copy of the O'Reilly book but their are
sooo many subtleties. Maybe I should pay for my dns needs - with the free 
service - you get what you pay for.

thanks
-chris

Also, I got an email from the RSACi Internet rating people. Having thought about it, short and shallow, I think I'll pass. While there's no content here to cause personality disorders or genetic damage, I don't feel any great need to use someone else's site to validate my content. Of course, I don't have the restictions upon my behaviour that a commercial site might have. If you find your way here, you're unlikely to be put out by the (very rare, but it happens) four-or-more letter word, or an unsavory opinion or two. But then again, I am fairly bland in most regards, so who knows - someone probably finds that offensive. Thanks. Now, to work before I melt. Later.


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Good morning. Too hot, not much sleep. Wrote a nice intro last night, and then a Perl script, below, that built the table that filled in all the blanks in our Packages List appendix. Handy little bugger, once I got it working right. Fortunately, a full run to build the table was less than 12 seconds, so I could easily tweak and re-run until I was happy. Got a message last night, I know I saved it, but can't remember...

rom: "Holden Aust" 
Subject: Thanks for the mention of Jim Lehrer's interview with Steve Ballmer
To: "Brian P . Bilbrey" 
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 05:54:35 +0100

Thanks for the mention of the Ballmer interview on the Newshour, I might 
have missed it, but for your note. Did you see or read the interview that 
Lehrer had with Joel Klein of the Antitrust Division?

I found transcripts of the interviews with Ballmer and also Joel Klein at:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/cyberspace/jan-june00/klein_6-8.html

You have to admire Lehrer's tenacity in refusing to be sidetracked from 
getting answers to his questions from Ballmer. It is also a very interesting 
contrast between Klein and Ballmer. If you haven't seen the Klein 
interview, I'd recommend reading or watching it.  Again, thanks!

Glad to be of service. Hadn't checked out the Klein one, maybe this week it
will be a *gleeful* Scott McNealy, eh?

I will head over later today to read the transcript of the Klein interview.
Thanks yourself!

Now, here's that pesky Perl file I wrote to solve the problem - when you spot'm, tell me what I did wrong, so I can learn other new things. I wrote for speed, rather than elegance, eh? Now to work! Later.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# bpack1, 06.14.2000, (c) Brian Bilbrey,
# Released under GPL v.2 or later (http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/gpl.html)
#
# Perl script uses the various files in the /mnt/cdrom/col/data directory
# from the Caldera OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4 Non-Commercial
#
# output is an HTML table written to disk, suitable for editing or copying into word docs
#
# first `zcat pkglist.gz > pkglist`, then run this script.
# then catch all the errors, fix the names in pkglist,
# rince and repeat
#

# Package Group Files into a hash.
open(PKGLIST, "pkglist") || die "can't open the packagelist\n";
$Pkg = ""; # First package type is ALL, a null string
while ($Pkline = ){
	chomp ($Pkline);
	($Pkname) = split(/ +/, $Pkline);  # snag just the first field
	$PKGhash{$Pkname} = $Pkg;
}
close (PKGLIST);

# Minimum
open(PKGLIST, "pkgs-minimum.generic") || die "can't open minimum\n";
$Pkg = "M"; # Minimum packages, mark with M
while ($Pkline = ){
	chomp ($Pkline);
	($Pkname) = split(/ +/, $Pkline);  # snag just the first field
	$Temp =  $PKGhash{$Pkname} . $Pkg;
	$PKGhash{$Pkname} = $Temp; # append the package marker
}
close (PKGLIST);

# Standard
open(PKGLIST, "pkgs-standard.generic") || die "can't open standard\n";
$Pkg = "R"; # Recommended packages, mark with R
while ($Pkline = ){
	chomp ($Pkline);
	($Pkname) = split(/ +/, $Pkline);  # snag just the first field
	$Temp =  $PKGhash{$Pkname} . $Pkg;
	$PKGhash{$Pkname} = $Temp; # append the package marker
}
close (PKGLIST);

# Business
open(PKGLIST, "pkgs-01business.generic") || die "can't open business\n";
$Pkg = "B"; # Business packages, mark with B
while ($Pkline = ){
	chomp ($Pkline);
	($Pkname) = split(/ +/, $Pkline);  # snag just the first field
	$Temp =  $PKGhash{$Pkname} . $Pkg;
	$PKGhash{$Pkname} = $Temp; # append the package marker
}
close (PKGLIST);

# Development
open(PKGLIST, "pkgs-02development.generic") || die "can't open development\n";
$Pkg = "D"; # Development packages, mark with D
while ($Pkline = ){
	chomp ($Pkline);
	($Pkname) = split(/ +/, $Pkline);  # snag just the first field
	$Temp =  $PKGhash{$Pkname} . $Pkg;
	$PKGhash{$Pkname} = $Temp; # append the package marker
}
close (PKGLIST);

# Home
open(PKGLIST, "pkgs-03home.generic") || die "can't open home\n";
$Pkg = "H"; # Home packages, mark with H
while ($Pkline = ){
	chomp ($Pkline);
	($Pkname) = split(/ +/, $Pkline);  # snag just the first field
	$Temp =  $PKGhash{$Pkname} . $Pkg;
	$PKGhash{$Pkname} = $Temp; # append the package marker
}
close (PKGLIST);

# hash table of packages built, now reopen package list...

open(PKGLIST, "pkglist") || die "can't open the packagelist\n";

# then open the output file, and write initial data (header info)
open(OUTTABLE, ">outtable.html");  #output file, html table format
print OUTTABLE "<html>\n<head></head>\n<body>\n<table valign=\"TOP\" border=\"1\">\n";

while ($Pkline = ) {
	chomp ($Pkline);  # strip the trailing newline
	($Pkname, $Pkver) = split(/ +/, $Pkline);  # snag first two fields

	# create a command string for rpm package query 
	$RPMq = sprintf("rpm -q --queryformat '%%{DESCRIPTION}' %s", $Pkname);
        $Pkdes = `$RPMq`;  # and run the query, save the output
        $Pkdes =~ s/\n/ /g;  # sub spaces in for newlines.

	# now to add in which groups each package is in
	$PkP = $PKGhash{$Pkname};  # returns string generated above

	print OUTTABLE "<tr valign=\"TOP\"><td>$Pkname</td><td>$Pkver</td><td>$PkP</td><td>$Pkdes</td></tr>\n";
}

print OUTTABLE "</table>\n</body>\n</html>";

close (OUTTABLE);
close (PKGLIST);

Good morning. Smack out of time, and I've only just started. Yesterday I did about 17 installs of OpenLinux. I had already gotten most of the screen shots I wanted last week. Now I'm following all the various branches and paths through the installer, in an attempt to find any gotchas, errors or hidden gems. Found all of the above - read the book! Heh.

Got this mail yesterday.... Oh, in case anyone wondered, no, Tom hasn't asked me if I can write a couple more Perl scripts to write the rest of the book for us... yet! Must run - note to self: update Perl Section from Thursday! Oh, hey, Bob? Do you *like* broadband access? Hmmm. Not impressed, eh? OK.

Hey Brian,

Just one suggestion for your perl script. In the opening comments, you say
that you have to run `zcat pkglist.gz > pkglist`.

Why not have your perl script do that? Then there is no muss, no fuss,
just run the script. I believe you can do it with an eval or a system
call. Don't have my Perl books handy, so I can't look it up.

HTH,
Ken

-- 
><>   Ken Scott   [email protected]   http://www.pcisys.net/~kscott   
                                                                      
              This is the day that the Lord has made;             
              I will rejoice and be glad in it!          -- Psalm 118:24  

Ah, that's because I forgot to write that about 30 of the package names needed
manual editing to make them recognizable by RPM, a step determined by running
bpack1 once, and watching the error messages... Then edit pkglist to correct
package names to match listing in RPMS directory on COL cdrom and bob's yer
uncle.

Thanks!

20:27 - The note to myself worked, I added the necessary comments at the top of the appendix-writing Perl script. Slow start tonight - I feel slightly less than fully motivated. Oops, too bad, no time to flake out. So I played for a little bit with a piece of GPL software called GOCR, an Optical Character Recognition program: currently at version 0.2.4, but fairly functional as an extremely alpha product: I used Ksnapshot, a KDE screen shot tool to snag an image of the GOCR homepage. Then I used The Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) to crop the image down to a couple of paragraphs of black text on a middling grey background, as below:

Following the instructions, I made use of the djpeg utility to decompress the JPEG image and feed it to the gocr tool that I had just compiled:

[bilbrey@grinch gocr_0_2]$ djpeg -pnm -gray ../gocr01.jpg  | gocr -i -
Thats mytytowrlte aOCR _optlcal characterrecognltlon_ program. Itls notln 
astable verslon. Please reportgood Ideas
and codes. Itls ableto read PNM ImageF_les and convertltlntotext.
Atthe moment l reallyneed exampleF_les _.pbm.g_ <lOOkB,jpeg also 
posslble_Fortestlngthe behavloroFthe ocrenglne
underdlflerentcondltlons, because scannlng doestake alatoFtlmewhlch l 
do nothave. Butdo notsendF_les,whlch are not
convertable bycommerclal ocrprograms orwhlch are protectedForcopylng 
and electronlc processlng bycopyrlght.That
wlll help,to gettheworld bestOCR open source program. __Thanksl
Send meyourresults _errors,num chars,dpl_ and lFposslble results and 
name oFproFesslonal OCR programsForstatlstlcs.

### This run same crop, but with white background ###

[bilbrey@grinch gocr_0_2]$ djpeg -pnm -gray gocr02.jpg  | ./gocr -i -
Thats mytytowrlte aOCR _optlcal characterrecognltlon_ program. Itls notln 
astable verslon. Please reportgood Ideas
and codes. Itls ableto read PNM ImageF_les and convertltlntotext.
Atthe moment l reallyneed exampleF_les _.pbm.g_ <lOOkB,jpeg also 
posslble_Fortestlngthe behavloroFthe ocrenglne
underdlflerentcondltlons, because scannlng doestake alotoFtlmewhlch l 
do nothave. Butdo notsendF_les,whlch are not
convertable bycommerclal ocrprograms orwhlch are protectedForcopylng 
and electronlc processlng bycopyrlght.That
wlll help,to gettheworld bestOCR open source program. __Thanksl
Send meyourresults _errors,num chars,dpl_ and lFposslble results and 
name oFproFesslonal OCR programsForstatlstlcs.
[bilbrey@grinch gocr_0_2]$ 

I can think of a couple of different approaches to doing OCR (at least, trainable OCR, font specific) but I think that I may want to actually read this code, understand and contribute one day. Maybe October. GOCR will still be in alpha or beta form then. Now out to run an errand - ...

Back for just a moment - tried one experiment: double the resolution of the original PNG image, then save out the cropped area as JPG again (still at 100% - we're not in this for space savings, just a decent OCR), and here's the result, not bad at all. Now really, good night. I am going to pretend to work for a while.

[bilbrey@grinch gocr_0_2]$ djpeg -pnm -gray gocr03.jpg  | gocr -i -
Thats my ty to write a OCD (optical character recognition) program, It is not in 
a stable version, Please report good ideas
and codes, It is able to read PNM image files and convert it into text,
At the moment l really need example files (,pbm,gz <1 OOkB, jpeg also 
possible) for testing the behavior ofthe ocr engine
under difFerent conditions, because scanning does take a lot oftime which l 
do not have, But do not send files, which are not
convertable by commercial ocr programs or which are protected for copying 
and electronic processing by copyright, That
will help, to get the world best OCD open source program, _) Thanks!
Send me your results (errors,num chars,dpi) and if possible results and 
name of professional OCD programs for statistics,

G'day! Happy Saturday. The fog, aka Bay Area air conditioning system, which began rolling back in Thursday night, is still in this morning. Gray and pleasant. Vurry nice. Sleeping until the body awakes, rather than until the alarm clock, is also very nice. OK, enough boring stuff.

One of the nice features of Mandrake 7.0 (and I presume 7.1) is the daily security report that the system assembles and mails to the root user. On Grendel, I rarely log in as root, so I have root's mail forwarded to my user account. Mostly the report consists of game high score files that are world-writable (insecure, but I don't particularly care), and lists of servers listening on TCP and UDP ports (those I care about). Since I locked down the box on installation, and check the Portsentry and Tripwire reports regularly, I rather Okey-Doke this security mail. But I noticed (for some reason) an open port without a server name attached to it.

There was a process ID attached (note the usage of past tense) to that port however. So I ran a ps on the PID and it yielded up a process called jserver. A quick initial Google search indicates that something called Jserver is a part of an Oracle 8i installation. Hmmm. I haven't installed Oracle 8i. Back to the box, where I check the package that is in charge of that process:

[root@grendel /etc]# locate jserver
/usr/local/bin/Wnn4/jserver
/usr/local/lib/wnn/ja-JP/jserverrc
 . . .

[root@grendel /etc]#rpm -q -f /usr/local/bin/Wnn4/jserver
Wnn-4.2-8mdk

[root@grendel /etc]#rpm -q --queryformat '%{DESCRIPTION}' Wnn
Wnn is a network-extensible Kana-to-Kanji conversion system.
With it you can type in kana (or roamji) and easily convert to kanji

Not something I particularly need, eh? Now to stop the process, then remove the package.

[root@grendel /etc]# /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S12jserver stop

[root@grendel /etc]# rpm -e Wnn

Voila. Gone. If I don't have a service either (a) running or (b) even installed, then I certainly don't have to track vulnerabilities. Now to writing. Maybe I'll install a modem, and try out that portion of the OpenLinux install. Call me foolish, go on! {grin} Later.


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The correct way to start a Sunday morning - a viciously strong cup of coffee the size of a soup tureen. Now about this "day of warship" thingy. Just how many of us have warships, not to mention the spare time necessary to play with them, maintain them, etc. And munitions! Talk about your hard-to-get items. Mostly you're stuck with auctions that pop up on eBay and get pulled within 24 hours, long before any consummation. Hmmm. What? Oh. Sorry. Wrong word.

As I was assembling and ordering the images for Chapter 3, I found two things yesterday - I had set an option improperly in SnagIt that meant I saw TWO cursors in each screen shot. That won't do. Additionally, on install day Thursday, I found several shots that I wanted in addition to those that I thought I had. So, my day yesterday:

Washed the truck properly in the morning (by hand, including wax, rather than the drive-thru pressure washer approach) - that took me up to noon, with a right nice sunburn across my shoulders for my troubles. Then I finally went over to www.techsmith.com (home of SnagIt, an excellent screenshot tool), and bought a license for the package. Got the license number back by email, registered the software and typed in the key - Voila!

The next 9 hours were more and yet more installations, trying to get all the snaps I wanted. The tough one is the initial login screen... There is some incompatibility that I haven't figured out between OpenLinux 2.4 and VMware - Clearly something changed in OpenLinux, because 2.3 and VMware work fine together, but when I install the VMserver for XFree86, I can no longer run GUI - X can't find the default fixed font. Hmmm. A few more things to try...

Oh. Talk about your basically handy feature. Using VMware, the main method of installation involves setting up virtual disks that are no more than very large files, from the perspective of the host operating systems. One strong advantage thus created is that, by making a copy of the file, a FULL disk image is preserved - so I can get the installation to the base point I desire, then copy it off, and start mucking with it, safe in the knowledge that I can restore in about 5 minutes. Very, very handy. In case you don't know the history - I bought 2 copies of the VMware for Linux product - then as co-author of a developing Linux book, VM sent me retail sets of both their products - quite useful and I am grateful. If they hadn't sent them, I would have bought them, though - there are too many advantages to the product.

Have you been over to the Netwidow's Recipe site, hosted by my lovely Marcia? There's a lot of good food over there, and even Bob Thompson has an entry in the stakes... sorta. Hey, I am writing about food, and haven't had any! Later.

Stopping early tonight. Just won a Motocross Madness race - A couple of Christmas' ago, Marcia got me a MS Sidewinder Pro Freestyle. We've never gotten any other games for the thing, and I only have room for one game at a time on my Windows partition, since the rest of the space is taken up with working applications and Linux VM's. Hmmm. Now a bit of mail or two...

Subject: Re: Search Engine in PERL
   Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 17:04:03 +0530
   From: [email protected]
     To: Brian Bilbrey 
     CC: [email protected]

Hi Bilbrey,

According to your last message, I today downloaded the Search 
Engine Program from the site www.htdig.org and installed it 
successfully. But I still could not understand how the databse can 
be created?? Will you tell me wheather the program automatically 
generates the database or we have to add the keywords??? 

After a complete installation, what i need to do for a real 
implementation of the search Engine??

Regards,
Thakur Gyawali
HealthNet Nepal

Hi! 

Given your usage of my family name (Bilbrey), rather than my given name 
(Brian), I can only begin to guess which is which for you - can you help 
me with that question?

Regarding ht::dig... I was looking at it, but given that Tom and I are now 
writing a book on OpenLinux, I rather dropped the idea of changing search 
tools for my site, since I'm so busy. That's too bad really, because in looking 
up some other information for you to use, the program suite looks *really* 
easy to use.  Try checking out this resource:

http://www.htdig.org/howitworks.html

That provides an overview. I may get into this shortly, as I can probably use 
it to catalog a group of journal-keeping websites I am associated with 
(http://www.daynotes.com/).  I will get back to you shortly - in the meantime, if 
you are successful, please send a report.

Thanks, Brian

* * * * * * * * * *

Subject: Warship

> And munitions! Talk about your hard-to-get items.

Not to mention the fact that there's a $200 federal transfer tax *per round*
and you don't get the tax back when the round explodes. Bummer, I say.

--
Robert Bruce Thompson
[email protected]
http://www.ttgnet.com

> and you don't get the tax back when the round explodes. Bummer, I say.

What is that, a "fun" tax?  Maybe you get the money back if the round *doesn't*
explode, eh?

.b

-- 
[email protected]    www.orbdesigns.com
"You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read 
 it in the original Klingon."    Gorkon: Stardate 9522.6, STVI

No, unfortunately. Once the government has your money, they keep it.

I used to attend a twice-annual gathering of machine gun collectors. They
held the meeting in Louisville, near Fort Knox, on an old naval artillery
testing range. Dave, the guy I always went with, was a big-time machine gun
collector and knew everyone there. At one meeting, one of his friends
brought a Swiss Solothurn PaK (i.e., Panzer abwehr Kanone, or anti-tank
gun), circa 1938, along with several rounds for it.

The organizers set up all kinds of targets down range. Old refrigerators,
old cars, etc., most with sticks of dynamite taped to them. The guy who
brought his Solothurn was getting on in years and wasn't comfortable lying
flat behind it to touch it off. He asked Dave if Dave would like to do the
honors and Dave volunteered me. I picked out an old VW beetle about 400
yards down range and touched it off. It was pretty impressive. The hood of
the VW blew straight up about 50 yards high and floated away.

My favorite, though, was always shooting my eponymous gun. The Thompson Gun
is really fun to shoot. I never got to the point where I could stitch my
name, as some true experts can, but I did get pretty good with it.

Robert Bruce Thompson
[email protected]
http://www.ttgnet.com

There. Now to spend some time for Brian and Marcia. Have a lovely evening - see ya tomorrow!


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