Trail, probably intent on food somwhere off to the left. and I (apparently gripping the saddle horn for dear life).
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Yeehaw!.. well more or less ;)
Today was quite an exciting day. It started off fairly ho-hum with some lawn mowing and car washing, but quickly ramped up when I donned a pair of wranglers (YES.. REALLY.. and in 100 degree weather none the less) and went for a little bit of a horse ride! I am not what you would call an “experienced rider” by any means, having only ridden three or four times in my life, so it was a bit of an adventure (and Kendra got a few good laughs on a number of occasions). None the less, it was quite a lot of fun, especially the whole cantering thing which is as fast as I've ever gone on a horse before.
The horse I rode is named Trail. His primary joys in life seem to consist of eating weeds (he needs a bumper sticker which says I BRAKE FOR PLANTS) and leisure. Partly because of this, and probably partly because of my lack of experience, he got a bit uppity about the whole riding business on occasion and did some little jump things which I guess are called "crow-hops". These were a little scary, but quite exciting, and other than this he was very nice, if a bit lacking in the enthusiasm department. It quickly became obvious to me that I need to learn how to sit a horse properly however. Certain bones in my less than amply-padded-butt seem to have taken their fair share of beating, strange muscles in my legs are sore, and on a couple of occasions (usually during that trotting part) I seriously wondered how real cowboys manage to further the species.... A couple of times I did sort of get into the rhythm and things went much more smoothly, so I suspect that practice is probably a key factor here. Anyway, Kendra was nice enough to get photographic evidence of this adventure (see above), so here is a really big THANKS to her for that, and for an exciting afternoon! :)
The horse I rode is named Trail. His primary joys in life seem to consist of eating weeds (he needs a bumper sticker which says I BRAKE FOR PLANTS) and leisure. Partly because of this, and probably partly because of my lack of experience, he got a bit uppity about the whole riding business on occasion and did some little jump things which I guess are called "crow-hops". These were a little scary, but quite exciting, and other than this he was very nice, if a bit lacking in the enthusiasm department. It quickly became obvious to me that I need to learn how to sit a horse properly however. Certain bones in my less than amply-padded-butt seem to have taken their fair share of beating, strange muscles in my legs are sore, and on a couple of occasions (usually during that trotting part) I seriously wondered how real cowboys manage to further the species.... A couple of times I did sort of get into the rhythm and things went much more smoothly, so I suspect that practice is probably a key factor here. Anyway, Kendra was nice enough to get photographic evidence of this adventure (see above), so here is a really big THANKS to her for that, and for an exciting afternoon! :)
Friday, July 30, 2004
Linux...hicks and dogs
Although they are more or less the spawn of Satan, as the Bowling for Columbine documentary points out, Lockeed Martin is apparently gearing up to be the Linux using spawn of Satan. I guess even they can't pass up free software.
In other news, last night was wonderful for a little jog, with a big full moon, and temperatures in the mid 70's! Unfortunately the Caldwell Natives were out in force. One car full of them even managed to pool their intelligence enough to come up with "run forest run" which they hurled out of their window at me. About 3/4 a mile later I got harassed by a pack of un-chained, un-fenced dogs, so I went home. I still haven't decided which group was more intelligent, but I'm leaning towards the dogs.
p.s.
If anyone can explain why Idaho hicks dislike joggers and bicyclists so much that would be great.
In other news, last night was wonderful for a little jog, with a big full moon, and temperatures in the mid 70's! Unfortunately the Caldwell Natives were out in force. One car full of them even managed to pool their intelligence enough to come up with "run forest run" which they hurled out of their window at me. About 3/4 a mile later I got harassed by a pack of un-chained, un-fenced dogs, so I went home. I still haven't decided which group was more intelligent, but I'm leaning towards the dogs.
p.s.
If anyone can explain why Idaho hicks dislike joggers and bicyclists so much that would be great.
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Midnight Machinations
10:01 P.M. - Well, I'm back at work again. The time has come for the final live test of the inventory beast.
10:24 P.M. - Problems. There is no DISK there, it is always the LOWEST and most downright repugnant of technology that gets us in the end. So, I'm going on a Mission From Gawd (ala Blues Brothers) to get the data from a contact in Boise.....
1:21 A.M. - The mission was a success, after approximately 60 high speed minutes on the interstate, and a few tense moments copying the file to a laptop for backup, I am now waiting while my python script crunches the data. The first three items went through perfectly, and so far everything looks to be going wonderfully. (touch wood)
2:38 A.M. - Some minor bugs in the code cause some delays, and lots of careful checking at each step caused some more, but it looks like everything went pretty smoothly.
3:20 A.M. - Upon reaching the old homestead, I found that my roomate was still up, and not feeling well in the stomach. Her supply of pepto had been exhausted however, so, being the nice guy that I apparently am, I was off on yet another Mission From Gawd, this time to Walmart. Having made it back safely, I think I will try and find out how deep the bottom of sleep is.
12:58 P.M. (the next day) - I got a call this morning at 8 A.M. saying that things were ready for the next major step in processing, so with 4.5 hours of sleep and some coffee con leche in me I headed back for another 3 hours of going through code and data with a fine toothed comb. As it turns out there were a few small bugs, and one major one caused by a set of circumstances I hadn't predicted which necessitated a little last minute programming. Such is life. On the upside, all of the data looks very good now and has made it to its final resting place, and so the first live test has been labeled a success. Needless to say, I'm going home a bit early for a nice long nap in an hour or so! Then it is lawn mowing time and after that I am busting out the old air-compressor and doing some major computer cleaning (so besides other clean systems, there will be a nice shinny pile of parts waiting to be assembled into a Linux machine by the end of the night).
10:24 P.M. - Problems. There is no DISK there, it is always the LOWEST and most downright repugnant of technology that gets us in the end. So, I'm going on a Mission From Gawd (ala Blues Brothers) to get the data from a contact in Boise.....
1:21 A.M. - The mission was a success, after approximately 60 high speed minutes on the interstate, and a few tense moments copying the file to a laptop for backup, I am now waiting while my python script crunches the data. The first three items went through perfectly, and so far everything looks to be going wonderfully. (touch wood)
2:38 A.M. - Some minor bugs in the code cause some delays, and lots of careful checking at each step caused some more, but it looks like everything went pretty smoothly.
3:20 A.M. - Upon reaching the old homestead, I found that my roomate was still up, and not feeling well in the stomach. Her supply of pepto had been exhausted however, so, being the nice guy that I apparently am, I was off on yet another Mission From Gawd, this time to Walmart. Having made it back safely, I think I will try and find out how deep the bottom of sleep is.
12:58 P.M. (the next day) - I got a call this morning at 8 A.M. saying that things were ready for the next major step in processing, so with 4.5 hours of sleep and some coffee con leche in me I headed back for another 3 hours of going through code and data with a fine toothed comb. As it turns out there were a few small bugs, and one major one caused by a set of circumstances I hadn't predicted which necessitated a little last minute programming. Such is life. On the upside, all of the data looks very good now and has made it to its final resting place, and so the first live test has been labeled a success. Needless to say, I'm going home a bit early for a nice long nap in an hour or so! Then it is lawn mowing time and after that I am busting out the old air-compressor and doing some major computer cleaning (so besides other clean systems, there will be a nice shinny pile of parts waiting to be assembled into a Linux machine by the end of the night).
Yippy!!
Well, after almost two months (6-7-2004 until today) of pretty solid development, ending in a mad two week rush of carrot stick eating and programming. The huge new inventory maintenance and processing system which I more or less masterminded and programmed with the other two guys here at work has passed initial tests, and is ready for prime time tonight! Parts of it are written in 5 different languages (c++, python, delphi, java, and php). It ties together data entry via pc and wireless scanner gun in a mysql database running on a Linux server with web reports served by Apache and php, data processing, and finally import into an IBM AS400 mainframe. There are a few areas for improvement of course, and some parts will need to be reworked as we get feedback from users, but HOT DAWG it is good to finally get to a stopping point.
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Blues Brothers
6:01pm - Okay, so I just saw the first 11 minutes of Blues Brothers... and WOW. I have very little doubt that this movie rocks.
8:24pm - Nearly 2.5 hours of my life later, and has my estimate of Blues Brothers changed? Not drastically. I was a bit nervous when Pricess Leia started shooting at them with a rocket launcher, but they took it in stride, so I figured, why shouldn't I? This movie is certainly packed with big names, good music, and plenty of old-school car chase action. It is like Grand Theft Auto - Vice City, when you have 5 stars and things are getting REALLY serious except it is in Chicago. Staying cool and being able to sleep through a night long car chase with 40 cops on one's tail seems to be the ticket however.
I NEED to find "Boots, black. Belt, black. One black suit jacket. One pair of black suit pants. One hat, black. One pair of sunglasses. Twenty three dollars and seven cents."
8:24pm - Nearly 2.5 hours of my life later, and has my estimate of Blues Brothers changed? Not drastically. I was a bit nervous when Pricess Leia started shooting at them with a rocket launcher, but they took it in stride, so I figured, why shouldn't I? This movie is certainly packed with big names, good music, and plenty of old-school car chase action. It is like Grand Theft Auto - Vice City, when you have 5 stars and things are getting REALLY serious except it is in Chicago. Staying cool and being able to sleep through a night long car chase with 40 cops on one's tail seems to be the ticket however.
I NEED to find "Boots, black. Belt, black. One black suit jacket. One pair of black suit pants. One hat, black. One pair of sunglasses. Twenty three dollars and seven cents."
Monday, July 26, 2004
Oh Lord!
Tonight was a good night for running, with the big moon and clear skies, BUT! carnies have invaded Cladwell once again! Yes, the chicken geeking, feats of strength and other such dark corners of the human experience will once again unfold mere meters from the sanctity of my own home. I will try to get pictures when I ride into work tommorow. In the meantime I suggest that everyone pick up a copy of Katherine Dunn's wonderful book Geek Love in order to get some idea of what to expect.
More Cooking
Fajitas are one of my more favorite foods, and now is the best time to make them. I start with a packet of fajita seasoning, mix it with some oil and a little water, and then put a sliced up steak in this mixture to soak. Meanwhile I slice up tomatoes, a jalapeño, a big onion and lots of peppers (green, yellow or red). I start the onion and jalapeño frying first so that their taste will be less strong, and then add the peppers. Once these have cooked for a bit I add the meat and tomatoes. It is best to add the meat later so that it doesn't get overcooked. Finally I put the mushrooms on, and when they look done it is ready to eat!
Saturday, July 24, 2004
10 points for Norway!
I looked in the mailbox the other day, and much to my surprise, there was a REAL letter in there (usually bills are the most exciting thing which come in the mail). Even better, the letter had stamps which said Mexico, and a postmark which said Cuernavaca! Inside I found a birthday card, a "Sinceramente Hallmark" birthday card. Now to head off any confusion, my birthday WAS in fact a number of months ago, and apparently that is when this card was mailed. The postal service between here and Mexico is not terribly prompt however and it seems that my card had been sitting in the Cuernavaca post station until they finally shipped it out on the 7th of July. Despite all that, I was grinning like the Cheshire cat when I opened the card. It came from a cool girl I met in Mexico named Nina. She is a chef from Norway and taught me a wonderful recipe for salmon. I like cooking a lot, but even better is learning new tricks from someone who knows how to cook well, so cooking with Nina was quite a treat.
Here is the salmon recipe:
It is best to start with the sauce because it takes a long time to simmer. It is very simple to make, just put some cream (of about whipping cream thickness) into a smallish sauce-pan. Stir in dijon mustard (I use the normal kind, but the honey type might be good too?) until the mixture turns a little yellow. Heat it until it is boiling a little bit, and keep adding mustard if it isn't as strong as you'd like it. Adding some sugar is also not a bad idea. When the sauce has boiled down to the point that it is sort of thick, especially if allowed to cool in a spoon, it is done. Put some dried dill in it at the very end, and maybe half a cube of fish bullion if you can find it. (Experimentation and tasting frequently is key here).
Once the sauce is going, slice up an onion or two, and maybe some garlic etc. Put these in a big pot full of water, and add a few fish bullion cubes (maybe impossible to get in Idaho, so I use vegetable ones instead). Bring this to a boil, and meanwhile cut your fillet of salmon into nice serving sized steaks (wash it well, but leave the scales on). Once the water is boiling turn the heat off (yes I'm sure), and dump the steaks in. They will cook quite quickly in the hot water, so check them every few minutes. Once they split very easily with a fork they are done. Don't overcook them or they will flake apart and you will have fish soup.
Serve the fish and the sauce with a nice salad and some noodles. For those extra-special occasions a bottle of wine goes well with this combination. Of course, we had it with copious amount of chips and home-made-guacamole in Mexico ;) Viva el aguacate, ajo y cebolla!
Here is the salmon recipe:
It is best to start with the sauce because it takes a long time to simmer. It is very simple to make, just put some cream (of about whipping cream thickness) into a smallish sauce-pan. Stir in dijon mustard (I use the normal kind, but the honey type might be good too?) until the mixture turns a little yellow. Heat it until it is boiling a little bit, and keep adding mustard if it isn't as strong as you'd like it. Adding some sugar is also not a bad idea. When the sauce has boiled down to the point that it is sort of thick, especially if allowed to cool in a spoon, it is done. Put some dried dill in it at the very end, and maybe half a cube of fish bullion if you can find it. (Experimentation and tasting frequently is key here).
Once the sauce is going, slice up an onion or two, and maybe some garlic etc. Put these in a big pot full of water, and add a few fish bullion cubes (maybe impossible to get in Idaho, so I use vegetable ones instead). Bring this to a boil, and meanwhile cut your fillet of salmon into nice serving sized steaks (wash it well, but leave the scales on). Once the water is boiling turn the heat off (yes I'm sure), and dump the steaks in. They will cook quite quickly in the hot water, so check them every few minutes. Once they split very easily with a fork they are done. Don't overcook them or they will flake apart and you will have fish soup.
Serve the fish and the sauce with a nice salad and some noodles. For those extra-special occasions a bottle of wine goes well with this combination. Of course, we had it with copious amount of chips and home-made-guacamole in Mexico ;) Viva el aguacate, ajo y cebolla!
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Running...
I guess I better start packing a can of mace, and a cell phone on my evening runs. Tonight a big black shinny SUV and a smaller white car where clandestinly parked window to window in the darkest, most remote section of my usual route. Maybe it was just a happy couple meeting for a late night chat, but I certainly ran quietly, and with heart all a flutter as I passed them in the dark. I really wish Caldwell would invest in some decently lighted biking and jogging paths. Oh well, I guess it's better to die of gang violence than heart disease.... Right?
Interestingly I had a run in with the other end of the spectrum on my way back from New Meadows last Saturday. I was following a big shinny blue pickup down out of the mountains, listening to Led Zeppelin, and not paying attention to my speed when the pickup and I passed a police officer going the other way. In my rearview mirror I saw him brake and come about. Looking down saw that I was going about 65. After pulling me over, the officer explained to me that the speed limit stayed at 55 until I got to the other side of Cambridge, and then changed 65. Nuts I thought, my first speeding ticket after 7 or so years of getting away with all manner of moderate speeding! He then went on to explain that he was going to turn the drug dog loose on my car, and that it would "throw itself against the car if it found something" but not to worry because that just meant he could then search the car. To further increase the pressure, he told me that if I admitted to carrying anything before he turned the dog loose he promised to give me the mildest citation possible. To admit, and keep the dog off, apparently I had to stick my arm out the window and wave while he was filling out paperwork. I kept my arms firmly in the vehicle, and when he came back he asked if I'd thought about his question. I told him I did not have anything like THAT in my car, and he sent me on my way. No dog, no ticket, hardly even a warning. I think he was wishing he would have gone after the blue pickup.
In more cheerful news, according to this set of benchmarks my computer will play DOOM3!!! This game is so freaking cool and scary that I hardly dare visit it's web site at night with my speakers on. I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to playing it, or dreading the nightmares more. Oh well, "Bring it On", "Hurt Me Plenty", "I'm Death Incarnate" here I come (God but I've missed the good old fashioned Doom carnage. Ever since I figured out that I could exit windows 3.1 and play Doom 1 shareware in DOS mode on my parents' 486sx 25mhz with 4 megs of ram, it has held a special place in my heart. Yes, those were the days.)
Interestingly I had a run in with the other end of the spectrum on my way back from New Meadows last Saturday. I was following a big shinny blue pickup down out of the mountains, listening to Led Zeppelin, and not paying attention to my speed when the pickup and I passed a police officer going the other way. In my rearview mirror I saw him brake and come about. Looking down saw that I was going about 65. After pulling me over, the officer explained to me that the speed limit stayed at 55 until I got to the other side of Cambridge, and then changed 65. Nuts I thought, my first speeding ticket after 7 or so years of getting away with all manner of moderate speeding! He then went on to explain that he was going to turn the drug dog loose on my car, and that it would "throw itself against the car if it found something" but not to worry because that just meant he could then search the car. To further increase the pressure, he told me that if I admitted to carrying anything before he turned the dog loose he promised to give me the mildest citation possible. To admit, and keep the dog off, apparently I had to stick my arm out the window and wave while he was filling out paperwork. I kept my arms firmly in the vehicle, and when he came back he asked if I'd thought about his question. I told him I did not have anything like THAT in my car, and he sent me on my way. No dog, no ticket, hardly even a warning. I think he was wishing he would have gone after the blue pickup.
In more cheerful news, according to this set of benchmarks my computer will play DOOM3!!! This game is so freaking cool and scary that I hardly dare visit it's web site at night with my speakers on. I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to playing it, or dreading the nightmares more. Oh well, "Bring it On", "Hurt Me Plenty", "I'm Death Incarnate" here I come (God but I've missed the good old fashioned Doom carnage. Ever since I figured out that I could exit windows 3.1 and play Doom 1 shareware in DOS mode on my parents' 486sx 25mhz with 4 megs of ram, it has held a special place in my heart. Yes, those were the days.)
Monday, July 19, 2004
Going toe to toe with evil spammers
Work was exciting today. One of my servers has been acting up lately, running really slowly, having trouble keeping up with it's work load, etc. Initially I was afraid that it had gotten hacked and was doing bad things, but as I examined it, I realized that it was just getting flooded by a constant deluge of spam! The poor old server was so busy bouncing all of this spam back that it didn't have much time for processing other things. Each piece of email that comes in has to pass through a huge list of filters which try to deny any email that looks suspicious. There are thousands of entries to parse through for each email, so when a spammer dumps a huge load of spam on the server it has to do a lot of processing. Luckily we had a spare system sitting around in case of emergency, so now we've upgraded from 450mhz of spam blocking power to 1.9ghz. Hopefully that will be enough for now, but I imagine that I'll have to look into more potent anti-spam measures in the future. Apparently black-lists are all the rage.
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Alive if not entirely unscathed
Well, amazingly enough I made it back from Reuter's birthday party more or less unscathed. I say amazing because Reuter did manage to dole out two bloody noses in the 18 or 20 hours that I was there. There is one lesson I learned well quite some time ago and that is that Reuter is a dangerous animal and not to be approached lightly. Plus, I knew from the thick pine forests that I was in Yetti country and Reuter is especially wild when he senses his own kind nearby. For these reasons I kept an eye on him at all times.
On the home front:
Apparently the damned varmint rock-chuck animals have been paying attention to this whole duct tape and sheets of plastic home-land security business because the chemical approach proved unsuccessful. Instead of dying, they moved under the woodshed. Old Man Geeze is not likely to let a few varmints get the upper hand so easily however, and has upped the ante by cleverly placing a fox trap in the entrance of their hole. The next move is theirs.
And as a follow up to the SGI post:
Apparently SGI pretty much agrees with me, as their next big project is going to be one Linux kernel stretched over 1024 processors and 3TB of RAM. This thing is mammoth, has enough memory to put my whole life in, and has to eat power like a small town, but damn. WHAT A MACHINE!
On the home front:
Apparently the damned varmint rock-chuck animals have been paying attention to this whole duct tape and sheets of plastic home-land security business because the chemical approach proved unsuccessful. Instead of dying, they moved under the woodshed. Old Man Geeze is not likely to let a few varmints get the upper hand so easily however, and has upped the ante by cleverly placing a fox trap in the entrance of their hole. The next move is theirs.
And as a follow up to the SGI post:
Apparently SGI pretty much agrees with me, as their next big project is going to be one Linux kernel stretched over 1024 processors and 3TB of RAM. This thing is mammoth, has enough memory to put my whole life in, and has to eat power like a small town, but damn. WHAT A MACHINE!
Friday, July 16, 2004
Cool things to read..
Unfortunately there is no time for real posting or reading, but I am eyeing these articles with great interest (and testing this new "compose" thing with a bit of trepidation...):
- First, the Hitchhikers Guide to Biomorphic Software talks about taking suggestions for biological systems for software design (super cool stuff in my opinion).
- Next, an article about tweaking everyones favorite web browser (Firefox in case you forgot).
- And finally, an atricle about the groovy new software development platform called Mono which is being developed as a compatible alternative to Microsoft's .NET platform. As far as I can tell, Mono will play a MAJOR role in widespread Linux adoption on the desktop in the future. I have already tried out the Rapid Application Development platform SharpDevelop
which is a GPL'ed IDE for .NET, and Mono. It was pretty snazzy.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
A brush with SGI
So the other day I went with Arzhang to visit the SGI box which lives out it's lonely existance at BSU. As far as I can tell, it pretty much qualifies as "BIG IRON" in the server market. It has four processors for God's sake, is purple, and has SGI written on the front. This should qualify just about any hardware as "BIG IRON". Arzhang has a picture on this page. Apparently most of these big SGI servers have 64bit MIPS processors, which is really cool because at one point I knew the basics of writing assembly language code for MIPS! (Hooray for Dr. J). They run a flavor of Unix known as IRIX. IRIX was originally released in 1987 and has apparently evolved since then.
I have had a few chances at dealing with other big corporate type Unix based systems in the past but nothing so big as an SGI box, so I was expecting quite a lot. I have to say that when it comes to usability, I was not very impressed however. For example, the software install and packaging system is straight out of a Douglas Adams book. There is no syntax highlighting when listing files or editing with vi, and to add insult to injury, there is no tab completion! Hardware being the same, I would take a Linux command prompt over an Irix one any day. The Irix desktop is is also a few years behind the curve, KDE and Gnome make it look pretty clunky. The difference between the two is really quite striking. Maybe the old Unix geezers (and don't get me wrong, I have boat-loads of respect for them) would tell me to stop my whining because they used to have to write 40 lines of code just to copy one file, but good lord, why haven't they AT LEAST written tab-completion into Irix? It didn't seem to work under tcsh or bash! To put it more poetically, Linux is like a young growing thing whose muscles bunch and ripple beneath ones hand, Irix is like a withered tree in the dead of winter, lifeless. Maybe it is just that Irix is so old, but my hunch is that the difference lies in Irix's closed-source nature. The people who use Linux can also change and improve Linux. This insures that it is continually evolving to be better, faster and more streamlined. On the other hand, Irix is reliant on a few programers who are probably paid too maintaining and create hardware drivers and other such system-level things, but don't get much time to spend making the interface snazzy. Don't get me wrong here, I'm sure the big systems from SGI can process data like mad, and they seem to still have a bit of a niche, but as a lot of the big-name corporate software producers are finding, it is hard to keep up with OpenSource. The expense of one of these SGI boxes is also incredible. I would be quite suprised if an SGI box could outperform an equally priced cluster of Linux systems.
I have had a few chances at dealing with other big corporate type Unix based systems in the past but nothing so big as an SGI box, so I was expecting quite a lot. I have to say that when it comes to usability, I was not very impressed however. For example, the software install and packaging system is straight out of a Douglas Adams book. There is no syntax highlighting when listing files or editing with vi, and to add insult to injury, there is no tab completion! Hardware being the same, I would take a Linux command prompt over an Irix one any day. The Irix desktop is is also a few years behind the curve, KDE and Gnome make it look pretty clunky. The difference between the two is really quite striking. Maybe the old Unix geezers (and don't get me wrong, I have boat-loads of respect for them) would tell me to stop my whining because they used to have to write 40 lines of code just to copy one file, but good lord, why haven't they AT LEAST written tab-completion into Irix? It didn't seem to work under tcsh or bash! To put it more poetically, Linux is like a young growing thing whose muscles bunch and ripple beneath ones hand, Irix is like a withered tree in the dead of winter, lifeless. Maybe it is just that Irix is so old, but my hunch is that the difference lies in Irix's closed-source nature. The people who use Linux can also change and improve Linux. This insures that it is continually evolving to be better, faster and more streamlined. On the other hand, Irix is reliant on a few programers who are probably paid too maintaining and create hardware drivers and other such system-level things, but don't get much time to spend making the interface snazzy. Don't get me wrong here, I'm sure the big systems from SGI can process data like mad, and they seem to still have a bit of a niche, but as a lot of the big-name corporate software producers are finding, it is hard to keep up with OpenSource. The expense of one of these SGI boxes is also incredible. I would be quite suprised if an SGI box could outperform an equally priced cluster of Linux systems.
Back ALIVE!!!???!!
After close to two days of waiting for 1and1.com to fix a horrible RAID harddrive corruption, my little blog is back! HOOORAY! I was suprised at how much I missed the little guy. Now I just have to try and remember all of the things I wanted to make blog entries about.... mmm
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
More Linux
Today marks another stride towards Linux World Domination as the New Zealand stock exchange moves their database to Linux servers! Apparently Oracle has produced a database server which runs on top of a stripped down Linux kernel which performs only the basic functions that a database server needs. Because Linux is open source, Oracle was able to remove all of the extra stuff which one wouldn't want on a database server, and do any tweaking they found necessary. This process leaves them with a lean mean machine which apparently is very efficient, cheap (they run it on standard Intel compatible hardware like servers from Dell) and of course very stable (because it IS stil Linux).
My favorite quote:
"We went for Linux, not just because we hated Microsoft, but because the cost was compelling,"
And... another day, another FOUR Internet Explorer security exploits. If you are still using IE by this point you might want to have your head examined.
My favorite quote:
"We went for Linux, not just because we hated Microsoft, but because the cost was compelling,"
And... another day, another FOUR Internet Explorer security exploits. If you are still using IE by this point you might want to have your head examined.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Productive?
Decided to give in to peer pressure and test this Hello thing. It seems that everyone is doing it. I have to say, it does seem pretty handy, especially with the whole resizing and blogger integration thing. Apparently my user name is Sarcaza?
Today was quite the day. Large strides were made towards de-varmitification of both my yard, and that of Old Man Geeze. I wait on pins and needles for the sounds of the foul roving packs of wild dogs to hit the electric fence and leave my lawn un-fertilized. Har-har-har. Geeze on the other hand has opted for chemical warfare, and the old Alice in Wonderland song “We'll smoke the monster out!” comes to mind. Also I rendered my first molecule in Linux today!!
(All hail the o-great and powerfull Linux, destroyer of Windows and humbler of Microsoft, liberator of science departments, the one who will bring balance to the force. Praise be unto thee, and mayest thou forever remain free.)
Today was quite the day. Large strides were made towards de-varmitification of both my yard, and that of Old Man Geeze. I wait on pins and needles for the sounds of the foul roving packs of wild dogs to hit the electric fence and leave my lawn un-fertilized. Har-har-har. Geeze on the other hand has opted for chemical warfare, and the old Alice in Wonderland song “We'll smoke the monster out!” comes to mind. Also I rendered my first molecule in Linux today!!
(All hail the o-great and powerfull Linux, destroyer of Windows and humbler of Microsoft, liberator of science departments, the one who will bring balance to the force. Praise be unto thee, and mayest thou forever remain free.)
Old Man Geeze had some big rodents eating his sunflowers, but what can stand up to something with a name like REVENGE RODENT SMOKE BOMB and a list of ingredients which reads as follows: Sulfur 40%, Potassium Nitrate 40%, Charcoal 9%. I have to admit, it did smell like rotten eggs, even from a good distance.
Saturday, July 10, 2004
Good days for bored students everywhere
I ran across a couple of cool sites on Slashdot today. Basically Carnegie Mellon and MIT are putting a bunch of courses and whatnot on the web! It looks like the MIT people have more in the way of coursework and lecture notes with no real opportunity to earn credits (but some interesting looking stuff to say the least), while the Carnegie people are actually going to offer classes for credit, except that you get the credit through whatever school you might be attending. The coolest thing about the whole deal is that Carnegie Mellon has a chemistry course with a VIRTUAL LAB! Being a good student and all, I first did their dilute 1M Glucose solution to .025M problem. I then decided to *test the system* by making something blow up (as far as I can tell, probability of explosion is the litmus test for all chem classes). Unfortunately, it seems that they only allow things to get to 99.85*C and don't account for evaporation (believe me, I TRIED!). This, the lack of highly reactive chemicals, and no tight-fitting rubber stoppers combined forces to thwart my plans. Perhaps if I were a better chemist....
Meanwhile, my laptop is now running Mandrake 10, and after only a very little wizardry, Autodock and Autodock tools. I think Bobscript and Raster3d are also working, but need to figure out how to test them. I am told that these programs represent some of the finest in bio-chem research.
Meanwhile, my laptop is now running Mandrake 10, and after only a very little wizardry, Autodock and Autodock tools. I think Bobscript and Raster3d are also working, but need to figure out how to test them. I am told that these programs represent some of the finest in bio-chem research.
Friday, July 09, 2004
YIKES!! (and WOOHO for Mandrake!)
A bug was found in the Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox browsers which could let a malicious web page run code on your system! (This makes one for Firefox, and like 20 for Internet Explorer, so I'm not switching back any time soon...). Unlike Internet Explorer, a fix for this problem is already out. Read about the same-day-fix here. Either you can download the new version, 0.9.2 or install this extension (just click and it should auto-install). It is important to keep in mind that Firefox is still a Technology Preview, and not considered a finished product by the Mozilla people. For this reason it is important to update it occasionally. (For the most part, it seems pretty damn polished to me though!).
In much cooler news, Mandrake Linux is making a big SPLASH in France where they are helping to replace a whole lot of Windows NT systems with Linux ones!
In much cooler news, Mandrake Linux is making a big SPLASH in France where they are helping to replace a whole lot of Windows NT systems with Linux ones!
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Birthday Wishes
Well, despite the fact that her blog bears an uncanny resemblance to mine, here's wishing Cassie a HIPPITY HOPPITY HAPPITY BIRTHDAY! (And, since that Punk Billoney ALSO has a page that looks like mine, I guess I'll get to work figuring out how this whole style, css, page structure business works so I can be snazzy and unique... or so that my page can be at least....).
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Consumer rights..
Well, it looks like the boys in Hollywood are at it again. Apparently a law will go into effect July 1, 2005 which will make it illegal to sell HDTV equipment which doesn't support a "Broadcast Flag". This basically means that most of the recording/portability functionality of HDTV will be killed in all equipment made after July 1, 2005. Of course, the EFF is pretty nervous about this, and urging people to buy HDTV tuner cards for their home-brew PVR linux systems, and help out with the programming too. Maybe it is time to look into a card.. but at $200 they are a bit pricey. Of course, when everything is broadcast in hdtv a few years from now I'd probably be happy I did. Then again, does anything worth watching ever really show up on TV?
Saturday, July 03, 2004
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