Monthly Archives: May 2008

Them Fancy Words

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I came across a particularly error-prone Wikipedia entry just now, and was doing some cleanup on it. I was having a hard time finding the correct spelling for one word:

According to the various Byzantine calendrical systems…

After a minute of trying to find the correct spelling, I realized that I was overlooking the obvious:

According to the various Byzantine calendar systems…

There’s no need for a word meaning “of or pertaining to calendars” here.

The moral of the story? Sometimes saying something in big words makes you sound foolish.

The State of Linux

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I don’t really remember precisely when I started using Linux, but I do distinctly remember December 31, 1999, around 11:55pm, sitting in front of my computer and seeing what would happen. (Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.) I was in KDE at the time, back when they had a HUGE digital clock that looked like crap even then.

I remember when USB thumb drives came into vogue, and I tried using mine in Linux. They worked! I just had to pull up a shell window, su to root, mkdir /mnt/usb, and then mount it there. And one day I forgot to umount before unplugging it, causing a kernel panic. Windows, meanwhile, let you plug the thumb drive in and seamlessly mapped it to a new drive. When you pulled it out, it unmounted the drive for you. (Although it still occasionally gripes at me with “Delayed Write Failed” even after I’ve closed everything using it and let it sit for quite some time. But I digress.)

Today, without thinking, I decided to plug my Logitech G15 into my Linux machine, running Ubuntu’s Hardy Heron release. It worked, but that’s not saying much: any old OS can see a USB keyboard. But what took me by surprise was what happened next. Without thinking, I used the volume wheel on it to turn down my music. It worked! On a whim, I hit the “Previous Track” button, and Rhythmbox started playing the previous song. I had to install drivers for this in Windows, but not in Linux. How’s that for a role reversal?

Of course, this isn’t a “Linux is superior.” There are still some flaws on my system that drive me crazy (why do my graphics drivers keep suspend/hibernate from working?!), but I can say that about Windows too. The point is that Linux used to be laughably far behind Windows in terms of things “just working.” And now I occasionally find myself wishing Windows were as easy to use as Linux in some regards. This is impressive progress!

Firewalls, Easy

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Do you remember me ranting a while back about how I’d built an OpenBSD firewall but it was a total pain and someone should make an “appliance” for it?

The pfSense people beat me to it, a long time ago. It’s a FreeBSD “distro” meant to convert a PC into an advanced router. It seems like it’ll support everything, ranging from NATing two PCs out your cable modem, to load-balancing a corporate network, incoming and outgoing. It supports a captive portal too, as well as VPNs, more firewall options than you could ever want and, of course, lots of nice graphs.

Absurd idea of the day: (1) get ISP at home, (2) find open wireless connection and use traceroute to verify that they’re on a different ISP, (3) set up load-balancing with some rules to route ‘sensitive’ traffic over your own connection.

This, by the way, is another project that would rock with Walmart’s $200 low-power PC. (Now if only it came in a spiffy rackmount case…) It’d also be well-suited for a DNS cache and a home DHCP server; you could even set it up as a transparent squid proxy if you wanted. (Though none of those features are listed on pfSense, so you might have to drop into the shell to set them up.) Oh, and it’s got a serial port, so why not buy a GPS and make it a stratum 1 NTP server?

AIM

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I frankly don’t use AIM that much these days, but will often sign on and think, “Wow, lots of people are on tonight!” or, “Wow, almost no one is on tonight!” So I just wanted to list my thought process after noticing this:

  1. I’d be interested in seeing a graph of my “buddies” online over time.
  2. It wouldn’t be too hard to write a little script to sit on AIM 24/7 and watch this.
  3. If I was doing that, I might as well log each time someone signed on and off, which would let me answer those, “I wonder if x has been online in at all lately?” questions.
  4. As long as I have a stalker bot going, it’d be even more interesting to grab their away message text and buddy profile.
  5. And as long as I’m doing that, I might as well add support for using diff to show changes in the above between any two points in time.

Is there anything that can’t be graphed? Or made into a shell script?

That Wacky State

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Can you guess the state?

  • Recently had about 100 students arrested, and several fraternties banned, after a massive drug dealing operation was busted at a state university.
  • Recently became the second state in the nation to give homosexuals equal rights.
  • Recently had 2 arrested at another school for selling body parts on the black market.

Okay, so the link gives it away. But this wasn’t really meant to stump people anyway.

Graduated

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I’m now (essentially) graduated, with a Bachelor’s of Science.

As I was walking across the stage, there were five different people who shook my hand. A few congratulated me; the President beamed with joy as she shook my hand (given that I’m a W-name, her facial muscles must have been aching?). But the last guy’s words of wisdom, imparted with a serious, dignified tone?

“Do not.

Fall down.

The steps.”

Words to live by!

Me in a Nutshell

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I had a bit of time to kill today, so I threw together a quick script to take every blog post of mine here, throw it all into one big file, and then use the Markov Chain script I’m so enamored with to “write” a blog post. What follows is essentially a slightly more incoherent version of me. The conclusion, incidentally, is perfect.

[T]he logout shutdown button locks up the machine for 30 seconds before it displays. This is apparently a known problem with several different causes, but it seems to be growing. And from what he said, but it was always an easy leave, so I have 2 columns. You can remove sponsored links, although I don’t. You can number the results. And there’s the “Autoload” for more, which I thought was interesting we think of OPEC as a cartel that has tons of power. In actuality, our power of demand far outweighs their supplier power, and we have the money to buy a faster lens.

I noticed that the flags often served as a replacement for “true patriotism.” And… Did Carville mean to equate Hillary with Jesus in his analogy?

the URL was just a fraction of what he’s made.

of the rooms. How this isn’t a bug I don’t quite buy the bit about them “checking your tags”? And is Houston a reference to Bush’s wiretapping , and how we should end the war, etc. But he seemed too young to have made millions. Maybe he was just from a rich family?

activity. I use thttpd for this idiotic venture, which lets me get a lot of calls? The DNC is at the forefront of… rights?

duty in the Caribbean.

the wrong way, and have the computer find times that work for each of us within certain constraints. I’ve invented what I call “shotgun scheduling,” which seems to want to run bleeding-edge alpha code as our main OS.

so it’s down to a science. Put it mid-way in the playlist for when you’ve already found your groove. It’s also good if you’re just looking to keep the camera perfectly still on a tripod for 15 seconds, but I wouldn’t try to take my ‘radio arbitrage’ skills and apply them to autos, except that having an extra radio is well and good, but having four broken-down cars in my parents’ driveway might not be profitable, but it’ll at least defray the costs of maintaining the atomic clock , the server really doesn’t know the true time. Thus we can only measure how the time differences compare. In this, I essentially just assume that my setting of 16MB is ideal for you!

comes a third benefit, too done right, I think a second is the tolerance . Here, the worst server is 0.022841 seconds 22.8ms off, and one of the videos he was showing was quite degraded, but that he’d make the arrest. He also mentioned expectations of privacy, framing the issue as a question caused me to be able to get to class. I counted, trust me. And that was all.

CraigsList

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I’ve always been a little creeped out by some of the stuff on Craigslist. There’s pretty obvious prostitution and drugs going on, in addition to people seeking affairs. And if you read through the “personals” section (which is pretty entertaining), watch out for ones with pictures… Something they’re, uhh, graphic.

So I went through about 20 recent postings, merged them into a textfile, and used my old Markov chain code to “learn” the text and then spit out text based on it… Some of the stuff on Craigslist is so bizarre that it’s hard to tell what’s nonsense the script spits out, and what’s real. (I’ve omitted anything wildly obscene.)

I love to read, movies, anything to do my hair today medium length i need a new look today im off from work hit me up I have a personality that is a cheater because whats is the beginning of something possibly beautiful and long term.

I love to have a great day! A little about me…I am very mature. I am a very comfortable passenger seat. I may or may not have a degree

Good stimulating companionship and conversation is the point of being with someone if your going to cheat on them. I’m new to this online service and hoping to make new friends.Hope it works…

I love to read, movies, anything to do my hair today medium length i need a new look today im off from work hit me up

I have a personality that is a cheater because whats is the beginning of something possibly beautiful and long term.

If you are Interested to have a big black cruiser with a good place for drinks dancing live music with a rumble between her legs, for occasional rides. Feel the rumble as we hit the open road…wrap your arms around me, and press in close.

meet you, after some phone conversations, in public places only unless of course it is business related or anohter type of function, in which case I would meet you, after some phone conversations, in public places only unless of course it is business related or anohter type of function, in which case I would meet you, after some phone conversations, in public places only unless of course it is business related or anohter type of

normal and fun people, between 30-40 years of age, who are looking to meet some new people to hang out today and maybee 420 a bit. I love being out in the rewards you crave. Where you do not. Once a week, I will visit you. We will go over the goals you set yourself and your mobile number and let’s start texting!

I’m looking for someone to be a hypocrite.

Anyone know of a good place for drinks dancing live music with a lot of chrome, and a very open, spontaneous, and down to earth person.

I’m not looking for a coffee and a very comfortable passenger seat. I may or may not have a great companion. My friends think Im mischievious and I hate writing, so that’s it for me.

I have all camping gears. I am burned out of shape so don’t be shy, just be sensual.

Interested in normal and fun people, between 30-40 years of age, who are looking to make new text message with on a regular basis…what are we going to cheat on them.

I’m looking for someone to play with soon, because the weather is getting to be a marathoner!!!

I’ve heard about Cuddle Parties on the back of a good bar to watch the Celtics where they actually put the sound on the radio and internet but there are none

I’m certainly not someone who puts a twinkle in my stomache

hey im a leo male looking for possible another mom who is self motivated

I am open to a totally awesome 2-year-old boy. My problem is that I am looking to spend some time with an older 30-50.

so please be mature and not very interested in going out at night.

I consider diversity to be really nice !

If you’re not interested in talking through emails because, honestly, I can respond to anyone with a picutre

Good stimulating companionship and conversation is the point of being a hard worker. It’s simply that you have one? Reply now for flirty fun on the TV.

I have always tried to be on the radio and internet but there are none in the Boston area.

I am thankful for every day that I feel like I have no friends!!

this poing in my eyes and butterflies in my eyes and butterflies in my stomache

Please be a real person, please be open-minded and if you would like to get to know me, please just hit a back button, don’t reply.

Anyone know of a good listener and would love to go out and paint the town with.

I look forward to talking to a loser

I work 2 jobs and do not allow myself to be really nice !

my friends are married, and not very interested in talking to a totally awesome 2-year-old boy.

I can occasionally get a sitter but sometimes those are hard to come by so I need a new look today im off from work hit me up I have problems in life.

I am open to speaking to people of all races.

Quick clarification, since I was horrified at first… “Black cruiser” is a guy referring to his motorcycle; he was looking for other motorcycle enthusiasts. As was the “rumble” bit. It just happens to come up in the most inappropriate places. Also, the “2-year-old” thing comes from someone discussing that they have a child.