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.

Good Morning. I had a productive weekend around here. Chapter 8's bound and up in Canada, getting slapped around a bit by the Chief Inquisitor himself, Dr. Syroid. Meantime, I plunked down 16 pages worth of work into the next chapter, between the close of Saturday, and yesterday.

Sigh. I didn't even take the time to finish a single quest in Diablo II. When we were at Costco yesterday, Marcia saw me looking with longing at the D-][ box (a shade cheaper than if purchased at Fry's) and asked, "Why not?" Other than a dearth of free time, no reason at all. Into the cart it went. Once home, and everything put away, the farm watered and chores done, I popped it into the drive, installed and watched the opening cinematics - very cool. Game play is fast and reactive - it takes good advantage of this Voodoo 3 card - great detail. So I slaughtered a few monsters, then shut it down and headed back into the OpenLinux zone.

I did learn something really interesting this weekend. First, let me describe my current working setup. I write in Word 2K, running in Win2K. I have an instance of VMware running, with 128 M devoted to a virtual machine window running eDesktop at 800x600 resolution. I pop in and out of OpenLinux to test things I'm writing, create views and generate screenshots. Mostly, I've captured the required screenshots with SnagIt32, a Win32 program that works like a charm.

Early this weekend a question came up on one of the mailing lists I participate on: How to do a screen capture of a login screen with options showing. I started to fire off a glib "with VMware", but first, I knew that wasn't the answer they were looking for, and second, I was interested to see if I could puzzle it out... Well, I haven't yet, but what I learned solved a different problem I had, getting the right screen shots for the KDE Menus chapter, which I am currently working on.

The difficulty is that menus, unlike application screens, are ephemeral things. What state they're in is strongly dependent on mouse focus. So I was having difficulty getting the menus, with their associate tooltips, text highlighting and the other fru-fru stuff to hold still while I left the VM and used SnagIt to grab the shot.... I need to be in two places at once. Hmmm.

OK, I used Gryphon the Acer TravelMate, currently operating with Mandrake 7.2beta. Running SSH, I logged into the VMware instance of OpenLinux, and set up an import command:

import -display :0 -window root snap0906.bmp

That command performs a screen capture, from the :0 X Window display, getting the whole window, and placing the results in a BMP file. Without the window command, import promts the Display user to enter corners for cropping the image, also not in the cards. So I typed that line, but didn't press enter, over on Gryphon. Then I set up the screen in OpenLinux exactly as I wanted it, mouse in my right hand. When all was perfect, I hit enter on Gryphon's keyboard and voila, I had the perfect screenshot. Open the BMP file in Gimp, save as a TIFF file, copy to the chapter directory, import into the document and save. Bob is everyone's uncle (a real good-time guy).

That's the tip for the week, now I've gotta run - late for the day. TTFN.


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I'm dead, but for a dead guy, I look pretty good, IMHO. Disounting time off for food and a run to Fry's, a little over 11 hours in after I got home from work, and less than a page an hour for my pains. Hmmm. I had a heck of a time setting up screen shots the way I wanted them, found that the CD drive in Grinch was actually dead, needing replacement, and got to spend a fair bit of time researching what the options were on severeral different multimedia tools in the KDE kit.

Good morning. The thing I like best about this project, aside from working with Tom, is that I am learning lots, heaps and gobs of new stuff. Every day. It's cool. It's fun. Of course, since September has crept in like a thief, it appears that I am going to have to go through withdrawl pains for a couple of days <g> -- We're off camping to Clear Lake, Saturday through Monday. I see the bass are biting, that can be fun (though distracting, don't you know. My best fiction reading times are paired with fishing).

Caught this odd parody off of /. quickies as the backup rolled at midnight... MC Hawking ?!? Top and center, Stephen Hawking and Ice T, at the Monsters of Rap tour... <g> Also found this, an 8-way iMac cluster ... translucent colored supercomputers?

Guess I'd best hit the road. Have a lovely day. Enjoy yourselves, I will!

13:45 - Hullo. Back at the home keyboards. Laundry (4 loads) is in the dryer, I've got a sandwich in one hand, a soda in the other, and that leaves either a gripping hand, or a pencil superglued to my forehead...

Now back into the fun with me. I have about 15 minutes to get situated, bring up all the virtual machines, get the various terminal windows and machine to machine sessions up and running. Then I can go pull the clothes from the laundry and get into some serious writing. The goal: finish Chapter 9 tonight. Might be possible, maybe not. Film at 11.

Coming up this month on three years with ETS. I do like stability, rather than the norm around this valley, which is dot.com hopping, with the last couple of months at each job apparently paid in worthless pre-IPO stock, then pop over to the next hot thing for another 6 month run until the VenCap dough runs out. Heh. Someone was referring to them on one of the lists as dot comedies.

Good morning and welcome to the large lump in the middle of the week called Wednesday. Some people call it Hump day - to me, at noon today, I am equally far away from each weekend. That can't be a "good thing", can it? In other news, I see that Amazon continues to have interesting problems, this time by accidentally dramatically undercharging customers, then asking for more money after the fact... Heh. However they are apparently attempting to cope with the deliberate price mutability for DVD's by refunding some customers.

Punched out about another 8 pages yesterday... this'd be much easier if I just wrote what I though was true, instead of spending 20 or so minutes at a minimum testing and proving my words are true... But right is harder than easier, and I know which I want my name associated with, as does Tom. This is our most significant agreement of style, and I appreciate it a lot. I did wipe out early, had the backup to Hydras running by 10, and was sound out by 10:30.

Now I'd best water the patio farm and get to work. Gonna be a hinky drive maybe, it's supposed to be raining, though it isn't right now. Have fun today. See you later.

19:15 - Hi. First an Alert: Jerry got bitten by a Trojan bug, Qaz.Trojan to be precise, check out his site for more details. I also came up with this info on the Symantec site. Be aware of this - it mucks with notepad.exe, which should be about 50K in size. If it's over 100K, you've got the beast by the tail. Disinfection procedures are found at the Symantec link above.

Still hard at work. I've another 5 pages in so far today, and perhaps 10 to 15 more to finish the chapter. Not going as quick as I'd like, but there you go. Oddly, not only did it not rain today, but the skies mostly cleared. There are still high clouds and a haze, to accompany the weird 55 - 60 % humidity. Hmmm, let me have a look for a nice sunset... Five more minutes! If I catch a nice snap, then I might be back later to post it (or tomorrow morning). Have a good one and hey - practice safe computing out there, OK?

Good Morning. Somehow, I am feeling not as rested as I would like... There's an oppressive feeling in the air. Ah, that would be it (He wanders out onto the front porch, to see that at 06:20, the temperature is 75 degrees, the humidity is 80% - - - EIGHTY PERCENT ??? - - -. He comes quietly back inside, and changes into shorts and a tank top. The people at work can like it or lump it.) Whew, this is odd, odd weather. There wasn't any sunset to speak of last night, after all. The clouds drew off to the east as the sun drew off to the west, leaving no screen for the show. Nice full moon last night though. THAT probably has something to do with it, too. If everyone is just 7th cousins of everyone else (or whatever that silly number is), then we're (<g>) all related to a lycanthrope or two. Just for that, here's a link to Fang, Claw, and Steel, a 'zine with positive stories about werewolves and other were-beasts. Heh.

Here's some fast links for things I think are interesting (yup, I'm using this page as a bookmark site, but maybe you'll like something, too). Doc Searls points me at Jabber.org (the developer's zone), and Jabber.com. Jabber is an contender in the IM field, open source (apparently), non-centric. Sounds a lot like IRC. Kuro5hin should be back online in a few days. This bill (reference found on Technocrat.net) would mandate remote kill switches in all cars, for the police to be able to terminate high-speed pursuits. Can you see a kid hacking up a solution to this one, then playing kill the cars (and the people) from an overpass? Sigh. Maybe we're coming up on time to leave this nutty state to the kooks and the tree huggers. Cars that can't and power plants that don't...

Hmmm. I suppose I'd better get moving. Nope, didn't finish last night, but I made a lot of progress, and the on-coming train looks a lot like the end of Chapter 9's tunnel. Just checked - The ETS networks are up and humming - I had a near-death experience with the Linux firewall/router box yesterday. It's an old AMD K6 which sits behind the "public" commercial DSL Modem/firewall box. But Prime (the box name) started acting really funky yesterday mid morning... turns out the CPU fan was spinning down on it's own initiative. A quick swap to a ball bearing fan (away from that sleeve POC), and all was right once again.

OK, have a good day, friends. Take care and I'll catch you later.

Good Morning! A hair over 5 days, played, tested, built screenshots, snapped them, wrote some text, wrote some more text, tested what I wrote, found the first text was a bit of a lie and fixed it... 30 images, 49 pages, Chapter 9 is on it's way to Tom. Yah, I know, my posts are rather boring and book-centric at the moment, but that's what they need to be, since I need to be rather boring and book-centric. This afternoon I'll do bones and cartilage for Chapter 10, but the muscles, skin and facelift are going to have to wait until next week, after we're back from Clear Lake.

Clear Lake. My dad called that rather a misnomer, saying it was one of the murkiest things he'd seen in a long time... of course he hasn't been there in a couple of decades, so who knows now? We will, tomorrow! Apparently the big mouth bass are doing well, and I'd be willing to play a catfish or two, just for the fight. I need to stop at the bookstore (yeah, a brick thing where they keep actual books you can touch on shelves) and see what I feel like reading. A three day camping and fishing trip can net me about 6 books read, and they won't be computer books. DNS and Bind can stay home, as can Sendmail.

Heh. I caught Bob Thompson with his post down. Or words to that effect. I like catching Bob early (and Tom when he's starting his computing days at the crack-o-dawn) and a few other daynoters because they start my day off right. A nice blend of Tech, Family, Fun, and usually lots and lots of sarcasm over some idiocy or another.

I know Wendy posted, and now Chris has as well... The "Keyboards" got mugged in Marseilles, and that ain't no fun. Chris and Wendy, I am sorry that you had to have a recent example of what pieces of shit people can be to each other, and I hope that you take all the advice that Bob sends you, only up the rate a notch or two. A 600 round per minute assault shotgun isn't overkill... after all, you live in France, not England. Say, are you allowed to defend yourself in France?

Take care of yourselves and each other. I'll see you later today (virtually speaking).

13:05 - Just a bit of email to brighten your day, courtesy of Bob...

Subject: shotguns
    Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 11:12:00 -0400
    From: "Robert Bruce Thompson" 
 
> A 600 round per minute assault shotgun isn't overkill
 
Heh. I actually shot one of those once. It was an Atchison Assault Shotgun, which 
some of the point guys carried in Vietnam. It was 12 gauge magnum, loaded with #00 
buckshot, and had a 25-round drum magazine. I don't recall the exact cyclic rate, 
but I suspect it was more like 450 RPM. I'm told by one of my friends who was In 'Nam, 
that the rule was if someone started shooting at a patrol, everyone but the point guy 
dropped straight to the ground where he stood, and the point guy pulled the trigger 
on the Atchison while he turned in a circle, thereby shredding the foliage as well as 
anyone foolish enough to be in the area.
 
I want to tell you that that was one horrific weapon. I can't think of any other hand-held 
weapon that puts more lead in the air faster. When one of those point guys went into 
his rock-'n-roll spin cycle, it was as though he'd become a huge human hand grenade. 
Presumably, Charlie thought twice about ambushing patrols that might be carrying one 
of those things.

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

Thanks, Bob.

17:57 - Well, back again for a brief moment. Thanks, Karen! Karen, my sister-in-law, has sent me a present... the purchase price of my new Diablo II game, in thanks for my evening availability in PC tech support. Well, now I suppose that I've gotta play the game, eh?

Lot's to do, little time. Built a red sauce with fresh 'maters, built a fresh set of partitions with Debian 2.2, now I have some shopping to do for getting ready to roll tomorrow. I'll be back.

Have a nice weekend, my friends. We're gone fishing. If you're newish around these parts, you can always check out the site index (called the Meta-Journal) - it's not the "best" organized place in the world, but there you go. Have fun, enjoy life, take care of each other, see you in a couple of days.


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Gone fishing! Back Monday afternoon!


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