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The problem
The problem with most wiki's, blogs, forums, bulletin boards, and virtually any web site software that supports comments and feedback is that so many of them do not support a good form of <pre> tags for inserting raw, preformatted text. Even ones that claim to have some tag for this will still do all kinds of evil escaping of characters in the raw test. This invariably messes up formatting (bad for code) or strips out critical characters (bad for HTML and Apache conf files).
--Root 17:51, 7 August 2008 (PDT)
Bad Omen
This is disturbing and shameful for more than one reason. I was trying to sign-up for the LinuxWorld Expo. For about an hour their web site was crashed with this error:
Microsoft JScript runtime error '800a138f' 'brandGlobalXML.selectSingleNode(...)' is null or not an object /live/template1.asp, line 42
So LinuxWorld is running IIS and is built with Microsoft ASP -- and it crashed. OK, I'm sure they outsourced it or something and maybe they didn't screen their vendor, but I bet this wouldn't happen to MacWorld.
--Root 13:03, 6 August 2008 (PDT)
Roomba
Apparently taking apart vacuums is an old joke -- "Don't go off and start taking apart vacuum cleaners!" Well, sure enough, a half-hour later I found myself taking apart my Roomba vacuum. It had been running for only a few minutes when it stopped and started beeping. A spinning brush had become jammed with hair and would not run... So I'm there thinking about what I had just been told, but the vacuum wouldn't work! I HAD to do it! I had to take it apart and remove hair from all the wheels and gears. It was so funny I had to write him back to tell him the news.
--Root 14:17, 13 July 2008 (PDT)
grep I hardly know
I learned yesterday that you can grep simultaneously for two patterns at once without using extended regex sytax (--extended-regexp). Instead you can use multiple -e options. Each -e specifies a separate expression to match and `grep` will match each expression individually -- like an "or" subpattern.
For example the following greps for "ssh" in a `ps` listing, but also includes the column header which would otherwise be lost if you only grepped for "ssh":
# ps axwwo pid,ppid,etime,euser,cmd | grep -i -e ^\\s*PID -e ssh PID PPID ELAPSED EUSER CMD 5167 1 5-21:11:30 root /usr/sbin/sshd 6339 6291 5-21:11:06 noah /usr/bin/ssh-agent x-session-manager 18562 1 4-01:16:17 noah xterm -e ssh noah@web10 18563 18562 4-01:16:17 noah ssh noah@web10
This is quivalent to:
# ps axwwo pid,ppid,etime,euser,cmd | grep -i --extended-regexp ^\\s*PID\|ssh
The first form using multiple -e options makes it easier to add on extra patterns without having to append it to an existing extended regex pattern. This makes it easy to make a nice 'psg' alias (ps grep):
alias psg='ps axwwo pid,ppid,pcpu,pmem,stat,etime,euser,cmd | grep -i -e ^\\s*PID -e '
--Root 13:48, 29 July 2008 (PDT)
Damn cron!
If you have a cron script in /etc/cron.d cron will throw it out of the queue if the permissions are not to its liking. Cron will not reload the script if you fix the permissions. You have to touch the file so that cron will reload it. Cron looks at only changes in time for loading cron scripts.
--Root 19:15, 21 July 2008 (PDT)
Stan's Network versus Noah's Network
Stan runs his network like a fascist police state behind a Berlin firewall that crushes the spirit of TCP/IP packets. Stan often finds himself locked either outsize or inside of his network during one of many revolts by the oppressed packets. Stan uses OpenBSD PF.
Noah's network is run like a Hippie commune of free-love, drum circles and consciousness raising drugs. On occasion some packets wander out and reach their destination. Sometimes they send back postcards with poems written on the back. Sometimes gangs of biker packets roar up and steal all the good drugs. But there is no hate in Noah's network because all packets are created equal and sometimes bad packets are just ones we haven't made love to yet. Noah uses Linux iptables.
--Root 00:38, 18 July 2008 (PDT)
Effeminate slip...
Last night at Final Final bar with Armand and April: I was absent-mindedly running my fingers through my long, flowing hair when April looked at me and said, "Did you just flip your hair?".
--Root 19:21, 16 July 2008 (PDT)
Verisign FAIL
After a long complicated process to renew an Apache cert I hit submit and get this error message: "We are unable to continue with this enrollment for the following reason: errors.ecas.30e9". Failure #1: uninformative error message of the worst sort. The page had a support link that said, "Chat with Us. An Agent is standing by." Clicking opened a popup form. I typed my plea for help into the form and hit submit where I get a message says "Your message has been sent". Then the popup window closes by itself. I tried again with the Chat link using IE instead of Firefox. Same result, but before the popup closed I noticed that the popup URL was https://admin.instantservice.com/NoAgents. Failure #2: if there are no online agents then don't show the Chat link and don't pretend the message was sent. I tried calling humans on the phone and it turns out that all of Verisign customer service is closed after 6:00 PM PST. Failure #3: Support closes? This is the biggest certificate authority in the world? Haven't they heard of outsourcing?
--Root 18:39, 16 July 2008 (PDT)
Bonk
I wiped out on my bike on top of Bernal hill on Wednesday. I was going uphill and turning right onto a cross-street when I hit a pile of gravel in the intersection. My handguards were awsome! Despite the weight I will put them on any new bike I ever get. I've had these Acerbis for less than a month and they have already saved me lots of grief in two spills. Not only do the guards protect your hands, but they also protect your controls and they act as bar-end sliders.
--Root 11:24, 27 June 2008 (PDT)
...
BFA
U2FsdGVkX195gJU1HKmNTbsG+G75VXvnN4IuO+kwjGxlL+Sl2cA/nSoJJCXdLef7 7yBwyaWS0tIuI64V6/XtnUZlki63knZMVgVqZNpxrTRJ48D5pR/3KPMPQiOITOBX zL05NDyQguWVSEgE+HpFJwtF3sntw12qweqBgWyXsVRm0DxCRc30Cx07jGu6/Q71 CLdqsHmgHheT2yYSOYaR8KMLT8byaq62jw++3s/2iCpdx/ElCoXM4zdISRk9Et1C mRnv1OY1C01wADqNp1u0FqmoUUXeUHYwAGXArfKio2ShJaoJ9k4Np4XCKUfC5KMQ hYRUHqcfUWkLVpXifIupnPo6cK7L3PFUCFcMe7C6uSLVxmzMMlL7rwmvdPamNYzw kv6NF3MKMSBdtxsvjFWvHUpu/wWqJbqVsns6NtoDV/ERnlRq7e/7WcKcgh643xoV 77O/xXDgbe3aEYxBB1jw84rRIniGsEYGHZBZ6FCK4Yti3fqTHC7BfZWtHo/Kik/o Mly9TC/xhM1e1BfqUxdvxL+greq3dS1VpXTeeXjnJm1WWYxV+5Z7Sis2RSFjQRwK +WpGYEXD2NuR/hakZjbV23xyfCrd0PjFRq/25uCOar+w/IVnRC1hHNb3udTzo4Go fpoCKhFJYtg7exqxnt0g3swso5VLdafxQlpSNweizPxMSHy2POkNng==
--Root 11:46, 20 June 2008 (PDT)
Mind Blown
--Root 00:47, 13 June 2008 (PDT)
William Stout Architectural Bookstore
This was an awesome bookstore. It's theme is architecture related books, but that's too narrow a theme. Think of every fine art, design, photography, travel or architecture book you've ever seen and it's here. I like books with pictures. This place is almost overwhelming.
http://www.stoutbooks.com/cgi-bin/stoutbooks.cgi/index.html
804 Montgomery st., San Francisco, CA 94133
--Root 17:44, 31 May 2008 (PDT)
...
BFA
U2FsdGVkX19CUXtwR5XtHpiydeI7JK4qdJE6gjsKMJOP9thYu/ijse0JqchuKSjx 40qqzE3wT51ymcDikD2lrKKY+znZfengKETKkLFG6VydJzEewBd8nZSf7RvAQEY5 OKSJNhhxXt1iI2QU47E/8OetwaveYoYgpxyODGDMm3S1F78eb1SzPcsGRmuZyv5x Oakp5CixCjzlhfkvO1gkPo9xVqWRv2d5tPl+bgn9tWVmB50QfWBuRZgjbCdiO/Eh hQyADrgc+kwoh+e04sloV7K+6lypREa3PZ3+xiAHazWz2e/MW9dISwNDFh3ZirX9 WvH0rJYTL6m4hNx7N9T3s5N00SWEJPcGgzMnKVbeU4ytTQlV1xH6W+tEzBXrbhK1 oH0rQBdw/HEE2vw+Vk04ILPOdt/S585kxb/skDT6LQgTJkkIn7FdwIsAZ+JYLwJa IVEOrGLST3FZ0zBdmxuFNmEffq0yBn8ffrplHXDD8+NCdVcJA9mwdV0RXzrzblW+ jNs1VegWYhuHS/a6d2LE//92Fr/cFoLHZWLRUIWLkXOiEdXIkm6XJIs83AybDUyV sIzzIO1JF6IylMYw4dRIj2QpsjcsU2CPGwzBdZXuXdIGW3KWLqF+o3DjK/6Kp91S uRLwIS4hXHE5uLl6fqPlvIpyvCbGY4X1kVM4bmO77frSDNcPTAKdWSKp+4332S/S vsfnH4cEE6nG/ZG9Af7uD/OBV6SL/7RacG3WjCUpXZKPxE/6wRrCWSOCUU8lX+ub fC3nCOH5ir3xBihCyi1Od6ZhPmi8ejh5TCNtUDl4G8eTy/Fg5WBa1tSnZmw74qHu xUwaMkFk0f/8vvrt7o2Mg06+HX+oscERHxQQ1zORd9GOwYLcvNeEqiQWOtjSo2fg biNwFrJoDVpWWrg034DNXQhYx8gajz31EFa+U0i5qjLDv4syVvvVJ6YiLTvVYIGg vZteyQerso+BUOvohi53r042piBP7kCSUCGYKjOioCT97iG4L3MJ5O+VKXgz0DYb DXo2hB527HeboLtQivoSj29gWzsE5FtZk7XpjyuqGxAbiOWhI6duueA7Vneg2GMa VilRCIjJLJsxMoShWNk/6/xYxH3bRd7UVv6ZhnScHQ2ilmFVmIQW+jg18AaPZSpI WcS+IVL5YvYGqcdcY/3CN0FFQn+6/NFvoCiQJJTDMI5IX89CCoUBMcg8LbPuk2SC mROil+tuQSvF4ebo2dhF1QtkEB/R+pFzDPEo5ITpLWEAVq7DGCimx05Z7Bra2DXF +wP3nOwv/xRoF0mIHq59MPyB3Vrq3g//i6knkhK1gJKEawuFu6ocXfT2UdmrVX0d LrGwfTvT8VrDEwRYYqsYJugzBAmzIVaTCxUESPeADeH4TCTwzyfoOK1sld4tR+g9 pmayksnsxIjlG5bk5+h155NLqUcyRKkmPLkov+tprFG4egIGPUdAwh7pXcmdn1pJ 8ClKYWwBagvLmtqaWfkHk/HpRKXjqK1YIdSy66CoBn4pSg8H8U9M0agK9rArbWwe ZGPBlYu7eOij6oduGOI5GD7vwZaDzAUTi5bcjYeg6y7qmsaTAPj/Lgl3FUJF46wg OHmPgHCE6Eqr+wzRXprbKKChrxI+3TPPfNiUT9KxTC/zthBU+jNcKgl2EDNkbF92 XRWTLMZKCkNLdJITQivW05Xu6tV/3GTaZyfttGYwGdyytxasTTfV4A==
--Root 15:28, 22 May 2008 (PDT)
Lumpenproletariat
I guess if I had to choose, I'd be part of the Lumpenproletariat; although, I'm probably really part of the Petit-bourgeoisie. I've got to do something about that.
--Root 16:23, 13 May 2008 (PDT)
...
Well... I have no soul, so I guess there is nothing to loose except my self-respect and there's a few claims against that.
--Root 15:24, 13 May 2008 (PDT)
Star Trek: Phase II New Voyages
Holy Shit! I like to be a nerd, but even I didn't think that "Star Trek Phase II - New Voyages" would be this good. I only saw one episode (episode 3 with George Takei), but the writing was really so good! I mean, the episode had a great straight-forward sci-fi plot, but there was nuance to it. Man, I just watched episode 3 with George Takei (playing himself 30 year older) and if this episode doesn't make you cry then you don't love Star Trek and YOU ARE A BAD PERSON... It was really good. Granted the acting was... well... the acting wasn't great (maybe not even as bad as the original if that is possible), but just it like the original show something intangible made up for it. The actors may not have been terrific, but you felt like they really wanted to be playing their roles and they were trying to make their characters fit into the Star Trek universe. It took me probably a good half of the show before I could accept the new actors as Kirk, Spock, and Bones -- and even though no actor could ever be the same... Maybe it's like a Dr. Who phenomena where it takes a while, but you eventually accept the new actor in their role... But the story was really good and overcame the cognitive disconnect. It helped that they had the original George Takei to tie it into the old series... Really, the writing is what made this show work. I'm really fucking impressed.
OK, so go here Star Trek: Phase II
--Root 00:08, 7 May 2008 (PDT)
public, private, and protected variables
Python doesn't have 'em. Nobody says they're a bad idea, but they add syntax without much benefit. I used to do a lot of C++ and before that C. Never once in my entire career have I seen a bug result from someone poking around with internal state variables that they shouldn't be using. I never seen this problem in the Python world either, so visibility/access restrictions aren't solving a big problem. I look for ways to prevent real errors -- resource leaks; incorrect logic; misunderstanding the requirements. The Python philosophy is that you can discourage clients from using certain variables, but there is no pressing reason to have the language enforce this requirement.
--Root 14:44, 5 May 2008 (PDT)
Caption Contest: Squirrel and Noah
- Squirrels Love Nuts
- Mmmm... Hantavirus!
- Squirrel Nut Zipper
- "Weasels Ripped My Flesh"
--Root 18:56, 30 April 2008 (PDT)
The Motorcycle Syndrome
Am J Psychiatry 126:1588-1595 ARMAND M. NICHOLI II M.D. Department of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School The author presents findings of an in-depth study of nine accident-prone motorcyclists and outlines a previously undescribed syndrome in an attempt to elucidate the psychological causes of the rapidly rising rate of motorcycle accidents and deaths. Examining the reasons why the motorcycle is particularly dangerous to these patients, the author explores the specific ego defect common to them, their adaptive and defensive use of the cycle, the cycle's symbolic meaning, and the unconscious conflicts it reactivates. He also suggests that this syndrome gives clues to understanding accident-prone drivers of other motor vehicles.
--Root 18:16, 21 April 2008 (PDT)
Don't follow the leader into every turn
Holy fuck, Armand is fast. Beautiful ride up to twin peaks. Inspiration to push myself. Nothing like getting jolted out of bed for some motorcycle riding... Man! I use less than 25% of my bike.
I have mixed feelings about this...
But I love squirrels...
--Root 11:55, 18 April 2008 (PDT)
Unicode and UTF-8
I had been using iso-8859-15 as the fileencoding in my Python projects. I only started using this because I got into some trouble with Unicode characters that I had cut-and-pasted from somewhere else. That fixed my problems for a while until I encountered Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt). After a little research I realized that UTF-8 is probably the best encoding to use in most applications.
Python apps:
#!/usr/bin/env python # vim: set fileencoding=utf-8 :
HTML docs:
<head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
That pretty much fixed all my problems. Now I have all new Python and HTML documents automatically set UTF-8 in the header. I use a template system in Vim that gives me a nice default document stub when I start editing a blank document of type PY or HTML. I put these UTF-8 settings in the header of my templates.
--Root 00:59, 17 April 2008 (PDT)
I like it with a matte finish
It's difficult to polish a knife blade on a buffing wheel without with catching on the wheel and getting yanked out of your hand; severing all the tendons; and flinging the blade into your eye socket. From now on I don't think I need to have a mirror finish on my pocket knife.
--Root 17:09, 15 April 2008 (PDT)
Ah, Good times! Good times...
OK, It's annoying already. Can we stop saying this now?
--Root 10:16, 15 April 2008 (PDT)
Yosemite Squirrels
I went to Yosemite for a friend's birthday. They tell you not to feed the animals, but the squirrels are living right in the village. They are practically city squirrels. I don't care. I fed them anyways. I had one come right in my room and sit on my knee. I gave it unsalted peanuts in the shell... It's called squirrelmania and I had it bad. People kept asking, "What's with all the interest in the squirrels?" -- What's wrong with these people? I mean, come on! The squirrels were all running around doing cute things like digging in the dirt and hopping off trees and fighting with each other... We sat outside in the Sun at a cafe drinking wine. Everyone was chatting pleasantly, but there were like squirrels everywhere. They kept leaping around in the background distracting me with their antics. I didn't understand how everyone could not be distracted by all the scampering squirrel shenanigans. I kept interrupting and pointing, saying "Oh! Look at that one!"... I'm going to turn into one of those old men that feeds the squirrels in the park.
--Root 10:03, 15 April 2008 (PDT)
Inkscape
I just donated money to the Inkscape project. http://www.inkscape.org/ This is by far, one of the best open source graphic tool projects. It's very sharp and well done. The user interface for editing vector nodes is very intuitive and powerful. Illustrator's UI for editing lines is just brain damaged. I will grant that Illustrator may have a million more features and be more powerful for the extremes of drawing complexity, but I think a lot of professional graphic artists could probably get a lot more millage out of Inkscape.
--Root 13:25, 14 April 2008 (PDT)
Screw you and your blog
Back in my day we didn't use blogs. We used ".finger" and ".plan" files. You would "finger" someone to see what they were up to. The good ol' days...
--Root 10:19, 9 April 2008 (PDT)
Tennyson Lee, engineer of the large
A Tennyson engineering project is never small -- they use at least twice the power that send mortals running in fear that an alien invasion force has landed.
--Root 10:14, 9 April 2008 (PDT)
Chapanese
What do you call a Japanese restaurant run by all Chinese? We call our local lunch spot the "Chapanese place". I thought it was funny. I've forgotten the real name of the place. It's also staffed almost entirely by high school girls (OK, probably college age, but they look like high-school age to me). The food is so-so, but we keep going back. I go often enough that I don't even have to order. The waitresses that know me just bring me the usual.
--15:27, 8 April 2008 (PDT)
Sugar by any other name
Bah! I'm annoyed at all the "health foods" that use "Evaporated Cane Juice" as a euphemism for SUGAR (sucrose)... Cane Juice -- Fie! Don't insult my intelligence with your healthy mumbo jumbo... See, that's how they make table sugar -- they take Cane Juice and then evaporate it. Presto! Sugar becomes evaporated cane juice.
--Root 15:39, 7 April 2008 (PDT)
Paul Robertson Brain Damage
Friend of mine turned me on to this PAUL ROBERTSON video "Kings of Power 4 Billion %" -- http://visublog.mechafetus.com/ It's an anime and side-scroller-shooter-game inspired music video -- not normally my kind of thing, but this video is awesome. Can't decide if this makes me want to do drugs or if this makes them unnecessary.
--Root 09:23, 7 April 2008 (PDT)
SFMC
I went to the San Francisco Motorcycle Club yesterday (April 3, 2008) to check it out and to return an extension cord to one of the members. Seems like a nice group. I'm going to come back to go on a few of their rides. ... The club house was cool.
--Root 12:48, 4 April 2008 (PDT)
Your forum sucks
I hate your stupid forum web site with its absurd password policy such as minimum 8 chars, mixed case, and a non-alpha character. It's a freakin' FORUM not my bank account! You'll be lucky if I ever come back to the site, much less remember the stupid password. The "My IBM registration" is like this. This is just so you can view their Developer Works tutorials. It's lame that they even make you register just to view web content.
--Root 12:45, 4 April 2008 (PDT)
Resist the Windows Tranny!
Trying to convince a friend to make the leap from from Windows to Ubuntu. Over IM I wrote, "Free yourself from the Windows tranny!". Er... I meant "tyranny". The Y makes a big difference -- Oh, there's a nice double entendre too.
--Root 10:10, 31 March 2008 (PDT)
LinkedIn Recommendation
A friend of mine asked me to write a LinkedIn recommendation for him. I wrote this:
Stan was well behaved under my tutelage. He was an asset to the team. I cannot comment on the events that took place after I resigned from the company and left Stan to his own devices. I was told that he took up with a bad crowd and took to using Ruby.
In my defense: #1, He didn't take the whole LinkedIn thing seriously to begin with and #2, It was all true!
Of course, I changed it to something more professional when he got serious and started to whine about it.
--Root 11:27, 18 March 2008 (PDT)
Black
Sometimes people mistake me for a Goth because I dress in all black. This distresses me. I have no interest in anything Goth. Dressing in all black is an engineering decision. It's not a statement. Well, maybe it is an engineering statement.
I dress in all black for a number of reasons:
- Mainly it's because I ride a motorcycle every day and I wear a black jacket and black boots. Any time I try to wear a shirt color other than black the bottom of the shirt pokes out from my jacket producing a colorful fringe. It looks silly. It looks like a Tutu. OK, so that's not so much of a good engineer's argument... That a fashion reason.
- I don't instantly ruin black clothes if I get grease on them. I get grease on my pants or shirt and least once a week.
- I don't have to separate any of my laundry. Everything is the same color. It all goes in the same wash. It's perfect uniformity.
- It's super easy to dye black clothes back to black when they get a little old and gray looking. This also covers stains that show up on gray. Every couple months I dump in some black dye in the wash. All the stains are forgotten.
- This also solves the awkward gift problem. Sometimes my favorite aunt will send me a shirt for x-mas that is nice and comfy, but is some color or pattern that I wouldn't know what to do with (what is plaid for?). I just dump it in the black dye and the problem is solved... I love my aunt.
- I don't have to decide what to wear in the morning. All my t-shirts, underwear, and socks are exactly the same. I don't even allow different types of socks in my wardrobe. They are all black Thorlo brand. This way I don't even have to match my socks.
- Black looks good at night. I can be very under dressed in my Carhartts by day, but still walk into a nice restaurant at night after work.
- Black isn't that hot in the Sun. People whine too much. Besides, I like it hot. It's good for your skin. I work better in the heat.
--Root 15:37, 27 February 2008 (PST)
Texas drive notes
I ate bull balls. Rocky Mountain Oysters they call them here. They weren't bad, but not something I would recommend or go out of my way for again. They were sort of like kidneys (but milder). Taste was fresh, bland with a very faint kidney-like reek in the background. Texture was soft, but a little spongy -- similar to sweetbreads. This feast took place at the New Mexico/Texas border of El Paso. We were actually just on the New Mexico side.
Some roads in Texas have 80 MPH speed limits.
--Root 12:55, 25 February 2008 (PST)
Don't Mess with Texas
I got pulled over by a Texas State Trooper in Pecos county. The speed limit on I-10 is 80 MPH in Texas. But they seriously don't want you to go over 80. I was doing 85 (by cruise control). The trooper let me off with a friendly warning. But in Texas they have Warning tickets. He actually printed one out with all my info on it. I'm not sure, but I suspect this is so they can track you if you get pulled over again. The second time they won't let you off. At least that's my suspicion.
--Root 12:22, 25 February 2008 (PST)
Free Beer Day!!!
I've hit my first official "Free Beer Day" from Google AdSense. I made $4.61 on my web site today so far -- enough to buy a cheap domestic beer and still leave a tip! Usually I make like 10 cents a day from Google AdSense. But $4.61 is real money! So now the dirty feeling of putting advertising on my site is starting to go away. I have a lot of Open Source software I give away. Now my software is not only free as in free speech but it's also free as in free beer!
I'm a simple man with simple needs.
--Root
Motorcycle Roadhouses
I was thinking it would be cool to have a Wiki of motorcycle roadhouses. This guy beat me to it:
http://roadhouse.planetx.com/
--Root 15:53, 14 February 2008 (PST)
Aerostitch Tours
I like long distance riding. I wonder if these tours are any good: http://www.aerostichtours.com/peru-tour-2008/pricing But will they let me go even if I don't own an Aerostitch jacket? I got Aerostitch pants -- they're great -- but their jackets are fugly.
--Root 15:46, 14 February 2008 (PST)
BFMC
I saw a group of these old-school outlaw motorcycle guys ride past on the freeway once. This was the first time I saw or heard of them. I thought their jackets had about the best logo for a motorcycle club I've ever seen. The lead rider made a hand gesture to signify (I assume) "commence lane splitting" and they all broke side-by-side formation; lined up; and started splitting. Another time in Oregon I saw their patch sticker on a bulletin board in a motorcycle cafe. That's when I decided to look up the name, BoozeFighters Motorcycle Club. It seems that they are infamous. They seemed like good riders.
Here's someone else's story: http://tonupyank.blogspot.com/search/label/booze%20fighters%20motorcycle%20club
--Root 15:21, 7 February 2008 (PST)
Bathroom remodel
Three months of bathroom remodel and I still have no toilet. Kumiko freaked out last week -- not without some justification; although, much of her concern and the bills came as a surprise. I think my problem is that while this has all been happening I have had another place to live; shower; and poop. So, while I really would like to go back to my apartment, the remodel has been out of sight and out of mind. That's just the way my mind works. I have so many other pressing issues. At any rate, Kumiko dumped all the project management and bills in my lap. This is probably a good thing. Now I am much more involved in the project. Still, things are on hold until I can raise the last amount of cash to finish this all off. Everything in done except for installing the appliances and hooking them up to the plumbing. --Root 14:14, 7 February 2008 (PST)
I'm normally a safe and sane rider
Last night I was on my way to having dinner with Sandra and her brother's girlfriend, Lisa, from Texas. I decided to ride by BevMo to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner. On the way there I stopped hard at a red light and skidded the rear tire. It was a long slide. The rear was light and the front suspension was compressed. The light turned green just as I got to the crosswalk, so I dropped the front brake and twisted the throttle. The front suspension sprang back up and the front wheel came off the ground. I wheelied through the entire intersection. I could see under my front tire. Then there is that frightening yet amusing "scootch" feel of the front tire coming back down that reminds me of an airplane landing. Wheee!!! I meant to do that!
--Root 12:09, 27 January 2008 (PST)
MDB Tools Suite -- My God, it works!
MDB Tools Suite is open source (GPL) code that lets you dump data from Microsoft JET database files (Access MDB files). I didn't have much hope that it would work, but it worked flawlessly. It's available from RPM Forge and in the Ubuntu main package repository.
Get a list of tables in a database:
mdb-tables database.mdb
Dump a table to CSV:
mdb-export database.mdb table
--Root 13:49, 24 January 2008 (PST)
Bike Cover Stolen
Someone stole my motorcycle cover. It's not that easy to just flip it off. You have to go around and untug all the elastic bits. This happened in the parking lot of my office last night (I work late). Two suspects sprang to mind. There were a bunch of skate hooligans hanging out back last night. There are also several homeless camps nearby. I figure there is some respect between skaters and bikers, but they are kids, so... Also, there has been some respect between me and homeless camps. They never cause any trouble. So, now I have no evidence, but now I'm suspicious of everyone. Sucks to come out late at night from work to a wet bike. Plus I had to leave the bike out all night in the rain when I got home. --Root 13:08, 24 January 2008 (PST)
Female Babies
Of the half dozen or so babies I know being born lately, all but one are female. I asked a friend about this and all his friends have females children too. --Root 13:32, 23 January 2008 (PST)
Week in review
I spent most of the week sick. I'm still recovering. I was out for two days, but I could have taken off four days when I consider how sick and useless I felt at work. At least I'm not one of those bastards who will come to work no matter how sick they are. I hate those people.
I've managed to, yet again, delay the investigation of the mystery of the duplicate Nagios alerts. Actually, I did go over the config files. I looked at the obvious overlapping contact hours. I didn't see anything suspicious.
I am starting to actually suck at Windows. Answering some hapless user's pleas for help once a week is not enough to keep me sharp on the basics of Windows. The config and admin apps area spread all over the place.
AT$T Edge network has been down for the better part of a week on my iPhone. I hate AT&T. If I didn't love my iPhone I wouldn't use AT&T. Oddly enough, AT&T has good hold music -- light Jazz, but not elevator Jazz.
Finally got my Ducati Multistrada into the mechanic (bad weather had prevented me from getting in for nearly two weeks). We were afraid that a timing belt might have gone. That can totally destroy the engine. I was starting to question the wisdom of this expensive Italian machinery. It turns out that it was just a burnt out coil -- nothing major; easy to fix; and totally covered under warranty. I love my bike again.
w00t! Nick, my favorite retired mechanic, is going to come over tomorrow to help me with my '66 Beetle. For this I trade computer knowledge.
--Root 09:45, 19 January 2008 (PST)
Sick day
I've had a bad cold or flu the last couple days. It's been years since I've taken off sick. What to do when sick? Old school ASCII pr0n! http://www.noah.org/wiki/Pr0n Yes, it's been a good day to stay home and while sick. I also updated my MediaWiki Include extension: http://www.noah.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Include . --Root 14:39, 16 January 2008 (PST)
Tony Millionaire
So Tony Millianaire's Maakies is the greatest thing I somehow managed to overlook during the 1990's. I rediscovered Maakies a couple years ago and I was astounded that I wasn't already a fan. There drawings were somewhat familiar -- I'm sure I had seen the strip before in a newspaper, but I wasn't a fan yet. Why not?
Tony Millionaire now also illustrates a series of children's books. I bought many of the books even though I do not have any children. My favorite is Uncle Gabby. If you know Tony Millionaire's adult comic, Maakies, you might think that he would write an ironic children's book. This is not the case. Tony Millionaire has a soft side and it's beautiful. This book will be remembered as a peer amongst the likes the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. The drawings are astounding. The story is beautiful.
--Root 13:12, 15 January 2008 (PST)
Hello?
Is this thing on? Hello?
--Root 01:28, 15 January 2008 (PST)
What hath God wrought?
.-- .... .- - .... .- - .... --. --- -.. .-- .-. --- ..- --. .... - ..--..
--Root 01:15, 15 January 2008 (PST)
First Item
Testing bringing up the system.
--Root 11:35, 9 January 2008 (PST)