tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73818882024-03-08T07:32:33.273+00:00Jumbled thoughts from a jumbled mindUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger259125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1119541275152174202005-06-23T16:39:00.000+01:002005-06-23T16:41:15.156+01:00we've relocatedAnd it's been a been a blast so far. Not enough time to do all the tweaks I wanted, but things are working out fairly well.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1114780818387050302005-04-29T14:20:00.000+01:002005-04-29T16:08:22.456+01:00why am I doing this ?It seems odd, really ... I haven't done a full year of <i>blogging as me</i> and I'm already contemplating a change. The thing is, blogging under my real first name was an experiment and I think I've gathered sufficient data points to draw the conclusions I needed. Ok, let me try sounding less grandiose and less in control now.<br /><br />I like the anonymity of the internet. For whatever reason, for whatever weirdo may be out there, using a pseudonym means that you have a fallback. It's one of the reasons I oppose <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric">biometric authentication</a>. If some cracker figures out how to fake your retina scan or thumb print, how would you change those things ? In the same way, if some nutjob takes a dislike to you, personally .. or just decides to make a nuisance of him/her self, using your real name in a blog means you don't have a way out. You are, literally, at the mercy of a person who knows how to use Google. Of course, it can be argued that if some information about you is in Google, your chances at privacy are pretty much screwed anyway. But even responding to a nutjob puts one at a distinct disadvantage. It depends on how much value is placed on information that is considered personal. I, for one, like to operate on a need to know basis. As in, if someone don't need to know something about me, why bother handing it out on a platter ?<br /><br />I started doing this under my real name (of sorts) because I usually jump headfirst into stuff that I am uncomfortable doing ... sort of like facing my fears, if you like ... and I was very uncomfortable with putting my real name out there. The few times I was forced to use my name on the odd mailing list are now archived for posterity. And I dislike that. I don't need the publicity. <br /><br />It doesn't help that in the small goldfish bowl that is Colombo, it's highly likely that you know someone who knows a blogger. Other Sri Lankan bloggers are nice, certainly, but why make yourself easy to find in real life if you don't want it so? I certainly don't need my name out there as a "blogger". Or a liberal. Or as a nerd. Or a geek. Or whatever tag someone chooses to attach to me. The amount of abuse inherent in the discovery of personal information by strangers or foul mouthed fuckwits is not funny. The recent influx of a few unsavoury characters made blogging under my real name a less attractive option, but the problems existed before the rotten apples infiltrated the barrel. So, it's time to branch out.<br /><br />Essentially, what this means that there will be infrequent (possibly no) updates at this site from now on... I may be back for the odd post or two, but I'm moving on, at least for the forseeable future. I've always wanted to tinker and experiment with blogging software on a real live website. More importantly, I've spent so much of my professional life building software and the random hacked together website or two for <i>clients</i> that I think it would be fun to do my own. Blogger is a great service, but I like experimenting with things too much to accept the restrictions of a managed blogging site for long. I think there is already a lot of useful technical writing on the web. Of course, that didn't stop me from adding to it. Some people even found my odd experiments useful. That's what I want to make available elsewhere in the vain hope that other people find it useful.<br /><br />I've met some very interesting people since I started blogging here. And actually met them in real life too. But as always, expecting everyone on das intarweb to be nice is naive. That's uptopian. It's not going to happen. The inflow of people with political agendas or religious motivations ... well, that's not for me. I don't blog as a grand socio-political experiment. I don't blog to preach my message to the masses. I certainly don't blog to further my career. In fact, if I did, then I think the contents of this very blog would probably disqualify me from a number of jobs *grin*. But escaping those with an agenda is difficult nowadays. Made more complicated by the fact that most people here know me by this identity and no other.<br /><br />If you already know me in real life, I suppose you can ask me where I've moved on to, if you're interested. If you don't know me IRL and if you're mildly curious drop me a mail. I'm harmless. Or so people tell me, anyway. The URL may change, but the things I blog about won't...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1114186617831971652005-04-22T17:16:00.000+01:002005-04-22T17:23:53.126+01:00the gap<i>Went all the way to the Gap of Rohan only to find there is no Gap in Rohan. Not even a Banana Republic. False advertising! </i><br/><a href="http://www.subreality.com/chimericon/sd13-arwen.htm">The very secret diary of Arwen Undomiel</a><br /><br />It's a bit of a sobering transition to go from mocking the <i>old farts</i> to being one of them. I don't have a problem with growing old (can you even call a not quite 30 year old <i>old</i> ?). "<i>Hey, I'm young. What do I know ?</i>" is one of the excuses that no longer seems to fly with anyone. What brought the onset of years home (not for the first time) was the quick scan through an entry which appeared in my RSS reader*. Someone bitching about O/Ls. Dear god.<br /><br />I can remember the bare details, but that's it. Through the fuzzy, romanticized and selective memories of the past, I just remember knowing exactly which subjects I'd screw up... and which I wouldn't. Which ones I'd need to cram for like a mofo and which ones I'd just give up and not even bother. I remember the desperation and thinking "<i>why the fsck do I need to study this shit ? I don't believe it and I don't need it and sure as hell I'm not going to use any of this horse poo ever again"</i>. Yes, I was much given to pointless railing at things I couldn't change. That much, at least, still remains. And in the end, what did it matter ? In the grand scheme of things, not very much at all. Not the pointless railing and certainly not the exam or it's results. But those things are only learnt with the benefit of hindsight.<br /><br />Oh and I fully look forward to constant use of phrases like <i>kids these days, I tell you</i> and <i>oh, you young whippersnapper, in my day we would ... </i> and the evergreen <i>what the bleep do you mean it costs THAT much ? Man, are prices rising or what ?</i>.<br /><br />Crap, I sound like my long dead grandparents now. That can't be a good thing. And this sounds like one of those closing monologues from Desperate Housewives. Crap.<br />---<br />* Quick plug: if you're on any sort of Loonix or Unixish OS and you're running KDE, you owe yourself a look at <a href="http://akregator.sourceforge.net/">Akregator</a>, a very very nice RSS reader. They really did hit the usability sweet spot for me. And the integration with Konqueror is a dream. Exactly what all the Windows based RSS readers offer with IE, except that in this case, you're pretty sure you won't get 0wnz0red by clicking on a stray link. Oooh, and tabs. And you can click on any tab and "detach" it into a new browser instance. Shiny.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1114090438320824012005-04-21T14:33:00.000+01:002005-04-21T14:35:11.506+01:00enronRecently, I got to know something. Something so big, so earthshaking in it's potential consequences that it rivals the scandal at the company in the title of this post. Well, at least for those concerned. Something so huge for the circle of people involved that it literally means ... not life or death, nothing quite so extreme ... but perhaps emotional well being for the immediate future. Overstating much ? Maybe. There isn't any money involved, no laws were broken and nobody gets hurt. physically. Not a big deal ? Wrong.<br /><br />The problem is this. I can't tell them. It's privileged information. There have been countless movie scenarios, hordes of book plots that revolved around the sanctity of a priest's confessional or lawyer-client privilege. Like ... <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_trading">insider trading</a>, if you want to call it that. My restriction is none of those, but it is still a question of ethics. Perhaps the worst kind of barrier there is... And my choices at this point are all somewhere between the northerly devil and the southerly deep blue sea.<br /><br />Do I <i>tell the person in question that I know</i> ? Do I <i>tell all the people who might be affected what I know ?</i> or more realistically, just the individuals whom I know personally ? Or do I <i>pretend I never heard what I did</i> and let fate toss the dice for those people however it may ? <br /><br />There is a trite turn of phrase for one option; "for the <i>greater good</i>", but that's a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower">whistleblower</a>'s choice. Transparency only seems like the most attractive option if it doesn't act like cling film wrapped over spoilt food.<br /><em>Ob note</em>: Ask me why that metaphor was uppermost in my mind. Or maybe you can guess already. Goddamn coleslaw and silly expiry dates.<br /><br />Anyway, why do I always seem to blog about these moral dilemmas ? Is it just that I am the only one to encounter them and consider them blogworthy material (for whatever thoughts that definition may conjour up)... or is it just that I make a Mount Kilimanjaro out of a termite mound ?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1113994894943881302005-04-20T12:01:00.000+01:002005-04-20T19:03:19.783+01:00killer quote<i>Those who know that they are profound strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for obscurity.</i><br />--Friedrich Nietzsche<br /><br />I'll freely admit that there are those (yes, I'm referring to myself, I think) who strive for clarity but the twisted workings of their minds seem to make the words come out all garbled. Or maybe it's their complete lack of lucid thoughts to begin. There I go again. What I'm trying to say is that it's all too easy for me to unintentionally be about as clear as a puddle of mud stirred with a stick. Profundity is very much a hit or miss affair.<br /><br />And with that quote, which I had not seen before, Neitzsche just boosted himself to equal footing with Voltaire. Because we all know that <a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/203.html">a witty saying proves nothing</a>.<br /><br />And in other news, the biggest darn icefloat on the planet crashed into a stationary object. <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/9999/99997283F1.JPG">Picture here</a>. No casualties were reported; and the driver of B15A got off without losing any points off his license. The makers of <a href="http://www.beerliquors.com/buy/beer/Smirnoff_Ice.htm">Smirnoff Ice</a> were unavailable for comment. Even the BBC reported on this story <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4460335.stm">here</a> and used the word "tongue" in a most disturbing fashion. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1715000/images/_1716577_penguin2.jpg">Some protestors</a> also used this event to bemoan the lack of justice and the leniency of driving laws in their region. The care police are investigating.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1113914101232983312005-04-19T13:35:00.000+01:002005-04-20T18:59:10.826+01:00map me<a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/">Google Maps</a> for the UK. They don't have Ireland done yet, it seems... but yay. At the risk of sounding like a gushing fanboy, man... that is soooo cool. Directions, animated scrolling. *exclaims*. Mapquest and Multimap looks terrible in comparison.<br /><br /><b>update:</b> Google Local is also available for the UK now. <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/local?sc=1&hl=en&q=curry&near=york&btnG=Google+Search">curry joints in my locality</a>. Woo. Don't worry <a href="http://yell.co.uk">Yell</a>, we still lub ya.<br /><br /><b>update 2:</b> They got satellite views up too. Wowsers. It isn't exactly the cool aerial views offered by Multimap, but woot. Hmm. and on closer examination, it doesn't mean much. No real detailed sat views of the UK yet. Do they even exist, I wonder. Maybe looking at the <a href="http://www.ordsvy.gov.uk/">Ordnance Survey</a> might help.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1113901579904644472005-04-19T10:06:00.000+01:002005-04-19T10:14:52.286+01:00Alexandria .. or something closeThe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria">library of Alexandria</a> was one of the largest on Earth at one time. These days, it's possible for a slim 2.5 inch hard drive to hold enough information to rival the great library. This is the final step in my attempt at getting a publicly available encyclopedia in a form that is relatively easy to access from my own computer. Parts <a href="http://muadib.blogspot.com/2005/04/wiki-kwikly.html">one</a> and <a href="http://muadib.blogspot.com/2005/04/shovelling-data-like-mole-on-steroids.html">two</a> set up the environment previously.<br /><br />One <b>very</b> important initial step requires changing a MySQL database parameter. Find the database configuration file (named my.cnf, usually), open it in a text editor and find the line which sets the <i>max_allowed_packet_size</i> for <i>[mysqld]</i>. This must be changed from the default 1M (1 megabyte maximum) to a higher value. I chose 10M. Perhaps a slightly lower value is possible, but why take chances, huh ? If this step is forgotten, the import will <b>fail</b> somewhere around the 600,000 row mark; ie: with only 33.3% of the job done. I discovered this, obviously, by having the job fail on me the first time. By the way, a configuration change of this nature requires that the MySQL server be restarted.<br /><br />Wait for the download of the <i>cur</i> table dump to complete. A 806 megabyte compressed SQL file should be somewhere on your hard disk. Next step, get that SQL fed into your MySQL database. This is the point where a bit of command line MySQL knowledge comes in handy. The problem with a file this large is that most GUI (or web) tools will simply choke, curl up and die at the sheer size. It's possible (theoretically) to get this done via GUI by splitting the file into managable chunks or something similar, but err.. why bother ? <br /><br />First, get a Win32 port of <a href="http://users.ncrvnet.nl/gmvdijk/utilities.html">gzip</a>. Ungzip the compressed file. Find the MySQL command line client and use that for the import of the SQL. The MySQL command line client is called (perhaps obviously) <i>mysql</i>. My interaction with the command line is shown below. Run the following command:<br /><i>mysql -u wikip_user -p < 20050406_cur_table.sql</i><br /><br />For bonus points, there is also a way with some command line trickery and pipes to manage the entire ungzip/import steps in one line. It's even possible on Windows although a bit dodgy if you're doing it on a Windows cmd prompt. Of course, you could still use the GUI tools for everything. Just that they'd be much much slower.<br /><br />Enter the password for the wikip_user when prompted and that's it. The hard disk will start churning and anything from 20 minutes to an hour (depending on the speed of your hard disk and a few other factors) later, the Wikipedia data will be in your database. Celebrate ? Nope. Not just yet. See, the Wikipedia schema cur table does not have a prefix. So, looking at your database, you'll see a <i>mw_cur</i> table and a <i>cur</i> table. Simply type in the following commands at the mysql prompt after logging in as user <i>wikip_user</i>:<br /><i>drop table mw_cur; <br />alter table rename cur to mw_cur;</i><br /><br />The first drops the existing (installed by default) mw_cur table from your database. The second command renames the cur table (with all the freshly imported wikipedia data) to mw_cur.<br /><br />Now, open a browser, point to http://127.0.0.1/Wikipedia and see if you're greeted by the Wikipedia start page. If all has gone well, you should indeed see what looks like a Wikipedia start page. Notice that the page does not look identical to the main Wikipedia page. Be a bit disappointed. This is because the Wikipedia dump does <b>not</b> include ANY images. Some might argue that this is part (or most) of the fun of a Wikipedia article. Unfortunately, various copyright laws prevent their bundling with the standard database dump. Some of the images in use can be found in the <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">Commons project</a>. Of course, some images are only linked via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wiki.php?title=Wikipedia:Copyrights">the fair use doctrine</a> which is only applicable to the US. Your mileage may vary. Later, I'll describe how I got some of the images included in my local Wikipedia copy, but for now, just click on your very own Wikipedia random page (http://127.0.0.1/wikipedia/Special:Randompage), follow links and enjoy. By the way, it's possible to change how your MediaWiki (and therefore, your Wikipedia page) looks by changing the skin from the not so nice default to something a bit cleaner. I recommend the <i>cologneblue</i> skin myself.<br /><br />And that's all folks. With this, you'll never need to have another dull moment. You can become the trivia master, amaze your friends and stun your enemies with your encyclopedic grasp of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proboscis_Monkey">proboscis monkey</a> digestive habits and other pieces of information that may ... in time .. earn you fame and fortune in <a href="http://www.jeopardy.com/">Jeopardy</a>. Or not.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1113827493460858502005-04-18T13:31:00.000+01:002005-04-18T17:36:34.576+01:00shovelling data like a mole on steroidsWe're on part 2 of our great Wikipedia experiment. Part one is <a href="http://muadib.blogspot.com/2005/04/wiki-kwikly.html">here</a>.<br /><br />My motivation was simple. I wanted a reasonably current snapshot of the Wikipedia data. Idle clicking around or the odd focused search could then happen from my own machine; not subject to the vagaries of network conditions or the health of the Wikipedia data center. I am probably a <a href="http://my.webmd.com/content/article/61/67400.htm">compulsive hoarder</a>, but there are limits to the whole <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pack_rat">pack rat</a> mentality, therefore, I followed some basic guidelines when downloading the databases.<br /><br />Only current snapshots. No revision history, no metadata. This is a work in progress, so I was prepared to live with the odd dead link as well. Furthermore I only downloaded the English version of Wikipedia which has the most number of entries, but perhaps more pertinently, because it is the only language out of that lot that I can actually understand enough to read encyclopedia articles.<br /><br />The database dumps of the Wikimedia foundation are done (roughly) once a month. The most recent which I used happened on the 6th of April. The dump files sans much explanation can be found <a href="http://download.wikimedia.org/">here</a>. Note that other projects by the Wikimedia foundation can also be found here; I also have local copies of wikiquote and wiktionary running on my machine. A simple mediawiki cloning technique (discussed a bit later) made this a snap. In fact, I actually had a trial run by importing the much smaller wikiquote database.<br /><br />But first, find the download section for Wikipedia; as of writing, it's 4th from top. The subsection that we need is en.wikipedia or english wikipedia. All the other 2 and 3 letter acronyms represent different localized language versions. There are several hyperlinks; one for cur (http://download.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/20050406_cur_table.sql.gz, I'm not making that link clickable) which is what we need. Start downloading, get on with your life. This is, at the current dump, 806mb of <i>compressed text</i>, which decompresses to 2.3 GB of SQL. It might take a while to download. In the meantime, we'll set up our local copy of <a href="http://wikipedia.sourceforge.net/">MediaWiki</a>.<br /><br />First, run an administration tool for MySQL (<a href="http://www.mysql.com/products/mysqlcc/">MySQLCC</a> or any thing else that is handy) and <i>CREATE</i> a fresh database. I called mine Wikipedia, but really, the choice of name is yours. For an illusion of better security, a separate database user who can only access this database is also recommended. I called mine the fairly obvious <i>wikip_user</i>. You will need this information before starting the install of the wiki. Testing that this user can actually login and access the intended database is always useful if something goes wrong. It usually will. A guy named Murphy said that<br /><br />Download the distribution of Mediawiki (download link <a href="http://prdownloads.sf.net/wikipedia/mediawiki-1.4.0.tar.gz?download">here</a> but do read the documentation). Decompress the contents (making sure you preserve subdirectories) into a directory named Wikipedia into your webroot. By default, apache calls this webroot directory <i>htdocs</i>. Point your browser at this URL (ie: http://127.0.0.1/Wikipedia) and the installation process should begin. It's nice and easy; with informative error messages and so on. One detail that I would recommend is using a <i>prefix</i> for the media wiki tables. The default <i>mw_</i> works well as any other. This serves to distinguish the media wiki tables from any others that may be in the same database. It also has another use (explained later) for all those intrepid souls attempting a Wikipedia clone. At the end of this installation, you should have a nice local install of MediaWiki chugging away on your own machine. If all you need is a wiki, stop here. Your job is done.<br /><br />Some technical notes: the mediawiki install <i>really</i> is simple. All the installer does is create and populate a file named LocalSettings.php (which it instructs you move to the main directory when installation is complete). LocalSettings.php contains the full path to your mediawiki install, the web path and database details as variables. So, if you want another wiki, you don't need to go through the whole installation procedure again, simply copy the entire Wikipedia directory over and make the appropriate changes to LocalSettings.php. That's it. Begin, the cloning of wikis can.<br /><br />Part 2 is done. We now have<br />a shiny php enabled webserver and mysql database.<br />our own copy of media wiki running off our local webserver.<br />a download-in-progress of the english wikipedia <i>cur</i> table dump.<br /><br />Onto the hairy part. Importing the wikipedia data. That's part 3.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1113749643195282252005-04-17T15:54:00.000+01:002005-04-17T15:55:01.063+01:00a wiki, kwiklyNo, not <a href="http://kwiki.org/">KwikiKwiki</a> or even the better understood <a href="http://twiki.sourceforge.net/">twiki</a>. What I'm going to describe is a <i>download, install, configure, tweak</i> session that actually ended up with something useful. A wiki, right quickly. And not just <i>any</i> wiki, but the mighty <a href="http://wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>. This is probably going to be broken up into several parts because I tend to natter excessively. I'll try not to get distracted meanwhile.<br /><br /><b>Why am I doing this</b> ?<br />I don't really understand the point of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki">wiki</a>. Ironic that I linked to perhaps the best known wiki of them all for a definition, isn't it ? But I love the idea of a <i>collaborative encyclopedia that anyone can edit</i>. I haven't reached that point in my life where I have sufficient disposable income to shell out ... a few thousand of $currency_unit to grab all the volumes of <a href="http://www.britannica.com/">Britannica</a>. I do, on the other hand, have access to a reasonably fast internet connection. So, Wikipedia became the poor mans Britannica for me. Then it became a bit more. Because Wikipedia is a lot more current that the fuddy duddy print versions. Tsunami on the 26th of December ? Well, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_Earthquake">the wiki entry</a> was one of the better ways to stay informed. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashmob">flashmob</a> ? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrosexual">metrosexual</a> ? Those additions to the lexicon were defined and explained by Wikipedia long before the more conventionally distributed encyclopedias got their act together.<br /><br />The problem is, I'm not always near an internet connection of any description. And even more distressingly, sometimes the Wikipedia servers can be a touch slow. The latter may get fixed at some point, but the former isn't really going to change anytime soon, so I need my Wikipedia fix while I'm offline. I have the hard disk space, I thirst for knowledge. And hey, I'm just curious at the amount of effort necessary to get it running and I like wasting bandwidth. Any (or all) of those reasons apply. And having a massive test corpus of reasonably sensible English sentences is a bit of a side benefit in my line of work.<br /><br />The engine which powers the mighty information dispensing Wikipedia juggernaut is named <a href="http://wikipedia.sourceforge.net/">MediaWiki</a>. Free (licensed under the <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html">GPL</a>) and relatively simple for the amount of heavy lifting that it does. The first step (all you need for a shiny wiki of your very own) is to install the MediaWiki engine. Onwards.<br /><br /><b>What you need:</b><br /><a href="http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi">Apache</a>. 1.3.x is ok. 2.0.x is better.<br /><a href="http://www.php.net">PHP</a>. 4.3.x is good. 5.0.x is ok, though perhaps not as well supported yet. I've configured machines with either version and minimal (like: almost no) tweaking was required.<br /><a href="http://www.mysql.com">MySQL</a>. 4.1.x is probably a better idea than the beta 5.x at the moment.<br /><br />Of course, you could just be lazy and check out any one of the following all-in-one installers:<br /><a href="http://www.easyphp.org/">EasyPHP</a><br /><a href="http://www.wampserver.com/en/">WAMP server</a><br /><a href="http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html">XAMPP</a><br /><br />I've run WAMP and XAMPP at one point or the other. Most people seem to prefer WAMP, but figure out what works for you. Of course, you could download and configure each piece of software individually, I prefer this route myself... I loved the slightly more customizable installers like <a href="http://www.apachetoolbox.com">ApacheToolbox</a>, but sadly, that project seems to have died.<br /><br />By the way. running a webserver on a machine without firewall protection is quite possibly a bad idea, so some security precautions are recommended. Like, don't allow the webserver to <i>listen</i> to any address except your own local machine (127.0.0.1/localhost), for starters. This only applies if your machine will be connected to the internet, obviously :)<br /><br />Additionally, if you want your own personal Wikipedia clone, you will need:<br />At <b>least</b> 3GB of hard disk space. If you don't have that much to play with, then the full Wikipedia is not for you.<br />The bandwidth and/or the patience to download at least 1GB of data. I lack patience, but I have access to a fast connection. Whatever works for you.<br />It might also help to have a relatively powerful machine at your disposal. Plenty of RAM (512mb is enough to run the Wikipedia on a local workstation AND get a reasonable amount of work done at the same time) and a <i>fast</i> hard disk are useful, although not strictly necessary. The beefier the instruments, the less patience you need.<br /><br />Whee. Click on the installer, run it and generally get the PHP in your Apache talking to the MySQL. I'm not going to cover the mechanics of this step in any great detail because so many others have. <a href="http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com/">Do what the url says</a>.<br /><br />At the end of this first step, you will have:<br />a webserver (probably Apache) running on your machine, with support for executing serverside php scripts<br />A mysql database on your machine<br /><br />It would save a lot of grief in the next step if there is some familiarization with mysql tools. Most of the click-n-run installers come with a nifty web based admin tool for mysql databases named phpmyadmin. This is good for basic stuff, but at least <b>one</b> of the following steps will need a command line based tool.<br /><br />Now, onto the next step; downloading the database dumps for Wikipedia... That's part 2.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1113589645957936742005-04-15T19:27:00.000+01:002005-04-16T18:23:56.330+01:00the hottest TV chicksFrom a conversation with <a href="http://fourthedition.blogspot.com">Gromo</a>... In no particular order of preference, the top 10 (or however many I can manage) hot TV chicks. Just to play with the heads of anyone who might be looking for these very names. Reverse chronological order, sorta ...<br /><ul><li>Eva Longoria - <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-24641/">Desperate Housewives</a></li><li>Poppy Montgomery - <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/WithoutaTrace/">Without a trace</a></li><li>Jessica Alba - <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-36/Dark_Angel/">Dark Angel</a></li><li>Gillian Anderson - <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-61/The_XFiles/">X-Files</a></li><li>Katie Holmes - <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/Links/linkid=26330">Dawson's Creek</a></li><li>Tiffani-Amber Thiessen - <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/BeverlyHills90210/">Beverly Hills 90210</a> (a)</li><li>Jennie Garth - <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/BeverlyHills90210/">Beverly Hills 90210</a></li></ul><b>Honourable mentions</b><ul><li>Elizabeth Harnois - <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-24350/">Point Pleasant</a></li><li>Sarah Michelle Gellar - <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/BuffytheVampireSlayer/">Buffy</a></li><li>One of the <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/Charmed/">Charmed</a> people... Alyssa Milano ? Dunno. One of those. <i>*waves hand around vaguely*</i></li></ul><br />And there I have it... I think. A few more (Terri Hatcher ?) were pretty much on the fence, so they didn't make the cut, so to speak. And some people (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000899/">Monica Belucci</a>, for instance) haven't made a significant appearance on TV. I believe the point of this exercise was to prove that I <i>obviously thought more than that were definitely cute, but recalling them isn't easy</i>*. Amen to that. Any more ? I'll probably agonize over this for the next few days.<br /><br /><b>update a:</b> One of many updates to follow, possibly. the Regster reminds me of Ms Thiessen. I went ahead and put Jennie Garth in that list too. Always thought she was the hawtness. Hmm, <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/GilmoreGirls/">The Gilmore Girls</a> duo get no more than a honourable mention, I think.<br />---<br />* I dont know why the conversation wandered into this tangent. Ask <a href="http://fourthedition.blogspot.com">Gromo</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1113383501813165222005-04-13T10:11:00.000+01:002005-04-13T10:11:41.813+01:00too good to pass upAnyone can now write enough papers to reach that elusive annual target. All you need is <a href="http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/scigen/">Scigen</a>. Get your papers written for you. In LaTex, with graphs and properly cited references. I think my laughter at the generated content is drawing too much attention, so I should stop now.<br /><br />In case my supervisor is reading this: I'm not going to use this for the papers. I swear. Really. Hand on heart.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1113327775044761062005-04-12T18:42:00.000+01:002005-04-12T18:56:40.726+01:00sqlite3 ships without readline supportWhich may or may not make sense, but I was somewhat annoyed to discover that the more recent <a href="http://www.sqlite.org">SQLite</a> shells ship without <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/GNU/readline.html">readline</a> support. The standard binary build excluded readline support because some Linux distributions (namely Suse) do not include readline support (<a href="http://www.sqlite.org/cvstrac/chngview?cn=2381">checkin here</a>). What does this mean ? (<a href="http://nslog.com/archives/2003/05/05/sqlite.php">someone else</a> started the rant before I did).<br /><br />Well, for one, you can't type in a SQL statement, curse to yourself because you missed out on a key piece of the syntax, hit the up arrow key, edit your previous command and fire it away. Instead, an up arrow key produces some sad ASCII. So, onto the source, Luke.<br /><br />Download the source. Spend <strike>10</strike>30 minutes futzing around with the configure options. Build a shared library version in a few minutes, but (obviously) this is a bit slower and for something as small as SQLite, I really prefer the static build route. Hmm, so how do I go about making a static build ? Get really really irritated because there isn't a lot of documentation on the build options and their interactions (and also because I seem to be wearing my dunce hat today). <br /><br /><i>./configure --disable-shared</i><br />(I'm lying. What I really typed in was <i>./configure --enable-static --enable-releasemode --disable-shared</i>. Told you I was feeling stoopid today. You really don't need all that. I'm not even sure if it makes sense to mix all those)<br /><i>make</i><br /><br />Hold breath. Wait till the shell compiles and produces an executable. Run said executable. It works. Readline support enabled. Perform small wardance of victory. Replace my current, crippled SQLite shell with the much friendlier readline enabled version. Continue work.<br /><br />There. That wasn't so hard, was it ? If you build SQLite locally and your system has readline support, the shell will automagically build with readline support too. But, making a static build, ie: the same precompiled binary available <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/download.html">here</a> instead of a shared executable requires a bit more work. A quick Google didn't reveal anyone else who had written about this particular problem (and it's solution) so I'm blogging it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1113246443371058722005-04-11T20:07:00.000+01:002005-04-11T20:07:23.373+01:00this is not a ...post to congratulate myself on how cool I am to be running <a href="http://www.getfirefox.com">Firefox</a>. Really. It's not. Firefox isn't perfect. In fact, read through the forums and the bug database and you'll find quite a few unresolved problems swept under the carpet (or marked as WONTFIX), desperate cries to let people know more about the development process and in general, all the stock experiences of a widely used, hugely popular piece of software. You can't please everyone. In fact, sometimes, you can't please <i>anyone</i>. And this is not for want of trying. And if I am to let a bit of narkiness creep in, it's not always like the <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/">Mofo</a> tries pleasing anyone, anyway.<br /><br />But just once in a while, you use something else (no, I'm not referring to the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/">whipping boy</a> of the savvy browsing public, but yet anther browser. Yes, amazing, isn't it ?. There are browsers besides <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/">the</a> <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox">big</a> <a href="http://www.opera.com">three</a>) and you begin to understand the extent to which your browsing expectations, even your browsing patterns, have changed. Just about to shut down and go home for the day, I realized my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX">ajax</a> library of choice was out of date. Fired up the nearest browser available (<a href="http://www.konqueror.org">Konqui</a>) and typed in the url. Dropped <i>one</i> crucial letter in the URL and ended up in a parked domain. Oh, well. <i>*sigh*</i>. No biggie. Leave the site to Google the correct address. See an assload of flickering, a sure fire that some ugly Javascript events are being fired in the background. Lo and behold, popups.<br /><br />I can't remember when I last got a popup that I didn't explicitly request. Not in ... I dunno ... six months ? Maybe longer. Closing the windows was trivial compared to the feeling that yes, even <i>other browsers</i> are vulnerable. I don't get to see the fruits of idiot web designers who like to throw popups or popunders, I don't see the creativity of people who try to hijack the status bar for their own special message... I dont see lots of things that various hosts want me to see. And I haven't been missing out. Not one bit.<br /><br />Sometimes, it takes an occasional typo to realize how things have changed. 4 popups from a page as late as 2001 would have been trivial. Not even worth blogging about. In fact, a day of browsing that produced a mere 4 popups would have been a good day. Or a day with only about 2 minutes worth of internet browsing. Not anymore. And the problem is, not just with popups but with <i>anything</i>, once you've tasted freedom, you simply cannot countenance going back.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1113058214474088422005-04-09T15:14:00.000+01:002005-04-09T15:52:13.303+01:00big yellow taxiOne of my landlord's frequent events on a Saturday afternoon is to head down to the <a href="http://www.york-united-kingdom.co.uk/restaurants/viceroy-of-india/">Viceroy</a> for a meal and a piss up with his buddies. This means I am the beneficiary of a lift down to the university on Saturday afternoons and consequently, I've gotten to know the taxi drivers who visit. All of them are well known to my landlord, which indicates a long standing habit of Saturday afternoon taxi rides. And here's the odd thing. Odd enough to blog about. All, yes <i>all</i> of the 5 blokes whom I've talked to thus far have either had or are still in the middle of a career in IT.<br /><br />The guy I chatted to today was new. Well, first time I've met him anyway. In his taxi, he had a <a href="http://www.sonyericsson.com/P800/">P800</a> mounted to the dashboard, a <a href="http://www.garmin.com/">Garmin GPS</a> system which he said he bought for his personal use and ... a flash memory based MP3 player. Along the journey, he discussed the relative merits of <a href="http://www.zonelabs.com/">ZoneAlarm</a> firewalls with my landlord, knew about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_scanner">port scanners</a> and as I found out a bit later, works as a systems administrator for a local company. Ok, so ferrying people to and from pissups is a profitable sideline for a sysadmin. Noted. I learn something new every day.<br /><br />Another chap worked for 19 years (he said) in <a href="http://www.york.gov.uk/">the city council</a> and before that, for an unspecified number of years in industry. Much older than today's bloke, he called IT a <i>"young man's job. too many systems, too much new hardware and software packages to maintain"</i>. In fact, every one of the taxi drivers I've talked to so far has a similar story. Those two stories are merely the edge cases. What is it with IT folk and driving taxis ? Is this a blip in statistics ? A rich clump of moonlighting taxi drivers in the vegetative masses of eye tee drones ?<br /><br />Maybe taxi driving is a profitable sideline. Or just maybe ... the evil outsourcing trends are forcing people to abandon their ergonomic keyboards and wrist brace supported mice for steering wheels and CB radios. Well, if that sort of career change is on the cards for the majority of IT peeps, I fricking well want a three wheeler with a huge ass subwoofer. Face it, the average three wheeler chap has a lot less regulation to contend with. Beats driving a boring taxi any day.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1112982415020843232005-04-08T18:46:00.000+01:002005-04-08T21:44:48.076+01:00bookish<a href="http://www.boingboing.net">BoingBoing</a> reports that a 46 volume compendium of Robert Heinlein novels will be published by <a href="http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire2005/index.php?id=30790">Meisha Merlin Publishing</a>. Although I pretty much agree with Cory's view that RAH's later books are rather bad, he left out <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441783589/qid=1112981224/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-3025319-4088654?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">Starship Troopers</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345330145/qid=1112981260/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-3025319-4088654?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">Puppet Masters</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671722069/qid=1112981290/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-3025319-4088654?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">Farnham's Freehold</a> and hmmm.. lessee, probably <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/034530988X/qid=1112981320/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-3025319-4088654?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">Friday</a> from the list of great Heinlein reads. Come to think of it, the man (Heinlein, not Cory Doctorow) has churned out a <i>huge</i> number of classics, introduced a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok">new word</a> to geekish slang and influenced a new breed of people who mixed political thought with their fictional writing. Not that the last is <i>necessarily</i> a good thing, but anyway, Heinlein is quite worthy of a compendium collection.<br /><br />As with my present struggles with a complete, inorder reread of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, my read through all of the Heinleins' ever written died of a genre overdose. There is only so much of a single author that can be read over a smallish period of time(like 2-3 months). Like wine, you need to sip rather than gulp down as many books as you can find as fast as you can. I tend to forget this at times; and poison myself against finishing all of a large series or an author. Hmph, well. Maybe the new republished editions will give me some incentive to finish off the Heinlein works. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345330129/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/103-3025319-4088654">This one</a> for example, is highly regarded and on my list of read-when-free. I do admit that I made the mistake of mixing Robert Heinlein's awesome older books with the more recent, much worse offerings. Since the newer ones bored me almost to tears, I pretty much lost interest midway through the reading.<br /><br />Returned my borrowed copy of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590593766/103-3025319-4088654">Conquering the command line</a> a few days back. I originally read the book to kickstart my planned move from <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/bash.html">bash</a> to the far more powerful <a href="http://www.zsh.org/">zsh</a>. Unfortunately, this was not to be, and I ended up using the book as a handy reference to various tips and tricks within bash. Nice. I learnt lots. But I'll probably need to read it again when I get around to moving to the z shell, though.<br /><br />And I'm thoroughly enjoying reading <a href="http://www.theatre-musical.com/phantom/pratchett.html">Maskerade</a>, part of the discworld series. It adds to the hilarity if you know and like the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293508/">inspiration</a> to the story.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1112889097453209122005-04-07T16:51:00.000+01:002005-04-07T16:54:21.716+01:00file managersOne of the so called <i>must-have</i> applications for me, on any desktop machine, is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_manager">file manager</a>. The problem with Linux having a much better terminal (or command line based) environment is that file managers haven't quite assumed the polish of their Windows counterparts. For years, I've been using <a href="http://www.ghisler.com/">this</a> on Windows and before that, I used the venerable <a href="http://www.rmonet.com/commander/">Norton Commander</a>. So much so that I got the complaint that "<i>whenever anyone sees your terminal from afar, it's coloured blue</i>", a reference to the trademark blue/cyan background of the original Norton Commander.<br /><br />Why are file managers so useful ? Well, <a href="http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/index.shtml">the OFM page</a> has the lowdown, but basically, for the person who takes some time to get used to the interface, it offers massive productivity gains in the mundane move, copy, preview, rename file tasks. Yes, even over terminals, an area where Unix power users/sysadmins are generally said to be the most productive. A single shortcut key, GUI based file selection instead of wildcards and complex manipulations of directory trees are some places where a file manager shines. The best (in fact, the most useful) OFMs are ones which are <i>dual paned</i>, they allow browsing two directories at the same time. Total Commander, which I use all the time in Windows, is of this category, as is the Norton Commander lookalike <a href="http://farmanager.com/screens.php?l=en">FAR</a>.<br /><br />On Linux ? Not much joy. Considering that I spend most of my time in a editor/IDE, browser, file manager and IM client (in that order) in Windows, it seemed rather awkward to live without a dual paned file manager when I moved to Linux. Unix machines already have a variety of file managers, from <a href="http://rox.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/index.php/ROX-Filer">Rox-Filer</a> to <a href="http://www.konqueror.org/">Konq</a> to <a href="http://flosspick.org/package/full/xffm4">XFFM4</a>. (No, I detest <a href="http://www.gnome.org/projects/nautilus/">Nautilus</a>). Unfortunately, dual paned file managers are (or so I thought) in short supply. I had to live with the imperfections of <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/">Midnight Commander</a>, which only runs in the shell, and doesn't have a nice shiny GUI to play with.<br /><br />Enter the contenders. I'd heard good things about Gnome Commander, but Ubuntu repositories didn't seem to have a working version, so I scratched it. My criteria for inclusion were dual panes, Gtk or Qt based, reasonably customizable and not entirely hideous looking. My next stop was <a href="http://www.obsession.se/gentoo/">gentoo</a> (not to be confused with <a href="http://www.gentoo.org">Gentoo Linux</a>). Unfortunately, as the <a href="http://www.obsession.se/gentoo/contrib/Stefan_Eiserman.gif">screenshot</a> indicates, it isn't exactly going to win any eye candy awards. Nice, fast and functional, but falls down a bit in the looks department. That's probably the story of my life too; so not wanting to be reminded, I moved hastily onto the next contender.<br /><br />From the absolutely fantastic KDE application suite, we have <a href="http://krusader.sourceforge.net/">Krusader</a>. Dual panes = check. Looks good = check. Customizable = hmm, so so. I confess Total Commander may have spoilt me a bit. Their latest stable (1.51) continually segfaulted when I tried to customize the starting directories (err.. ouch) but everything else seemed to work ok. Oh, except that it didn't <i>remember</i> my viewing preferences and gave me all the toolbars and widgets back when I restarted. Oh, well. But it does the job of file management reasonably well, so Krusader is a keeper. But, a drawback. I don't use KDE as my primary desktop. I personally dislike it's <i>widgetyness</i>, even with the most eyecandy like of themes. And I dislike the fact that I'll never see ports of these apps in Windows. Ok, so the last won't be true when <a href="http://www.linuxsucks.org/read.html?postid=12590&replies=5&page=1">Trolltech releases Qt 4 for Windows as GPL</a>, but that's a while away.<br /><br />So, onto the next contender, <a href="http://tuxcmd.sourceforge.net/download.php">TuxCommander</a>. Gtk2 based, good. Customizable = yes, it actually does allow good customizations. The plugin system isn't working that well, and it is less developed than Krusader (like, TuxCmd doesn't even HAVE options to disable toolbars and the like). So, we have two winners. Krusader is probably the file manager that is most usable at this stage, but TuxCmd isn't bad enough to toss into the bitbucket either.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1112806570155506152005-04-06T17:30:00.000+01:002005-04-06T18:11:25.973+01:00use it or lose it<a href="http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/06/140202&tid=163&tid=8&tid=106">Slashdot</a> is abuzz with the news that <a href="http://www.bitkeeper.com/">Bitkeeper</a> is moving away from offering a free license. This impacts development of the <a href="http://www.kernel.org">Linux kernel</a>, which completed a controversial move to Bitkeeper 5-6 years ago. Now, if I understand the licensing correctly (and I've had a long argument with several people about it), BitKeeper specifically forbids use of the free tool if you've ever contributed code to a competitor. This includes Subversion, CVS, Arcs ... and so on. Why they pulled the free license was because a contractor with Linus Torvald's employer was reverse engineering BitKeeper. on an unrelated project.<br /><br />Hmph. I don't develop the kernel. I've only seen any of the source a handful of times. Their development practices mean nothing to me. If the Linux kernel was developed by a bunch of monkeys using no version control; by merely banging away on a set of keyboards, I'd be none the wiser. Well, I'd notice if the fricking thing didn't build. I'd bitch if it breaks something. I'd probably notice if my beloved Loonix machines didn't boot because of a screwy kernel. But other than that, I don't care. So I'm not going to comment. But as in <a href="http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/04/06/984471-sun.html">an election</a>, the absence of comment can also say something. I learnt something from this episode. If you <i>really</i> value your data (in this case, the Linux source), there is little difference between a possibly poorly maintained OSS application (with no vendor and no support) and free use of a commercial application (whose license for use may be revoked at any time). Having said that, I'm still using the freebie version of <a href="http://www.perforce.com/">Perforce</a>. It's nice. I'd prefer <a href="http://subversion.tigris.org">Subversion</a>, all the <a href="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/svn.html">cool kids</a> use Subversion (1.1.4, with bugfixes, was released today). But installing <a href="http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/">TortoiseSVN</a> on a Windows machine I don't admin is impossible. So I am playing a bit of <i>do what I say, not what I do</i>.<br /><br />In other news, people keep insisting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric">biometric</a> security is good, right ? Try convincing <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4396831.stm">K Kumaran</a> of that. He'd probably err.. give you the finger.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1112692345683774292005-04-05T09:18:00.000+01:002005-04-05T10:12:25.686+01:00reflectionsInspired by <a href="http://flanflanflan.blogspot.com/2005/03/interesting-list.html">this post</a>.<br /><br /><b>10 years ago</b><br />I was cramming for subjects that I disliked, for an exam I didn't want. I was living with my parents and I honestly had <i>no</i> idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. My entire life stretched out before me and I knew sweet fsck all about what I wanted from it.<br /><br /><b>5 years ago</b><br />I had gotten back from a stint outside SL and I was living with my parents again. Exams round the corner but the difference was that I <i>liked</i> the stuff I was doing now. No cramming necessary. Sometime inbetween 1995 and 1996, I had discovered something that I liked doing and paid the bills. Living on my own didn't produce the cliched reactions that I thought it would. I didn't appreciate my family more. Instead, I found I had a taste for doing my own thing and not being part of a crowd. Oddly, I <i>grew up</i> again. A few years ago, a wedding made me <i>comfortable</i> with my much older siblings and cousins. Now, I was not only comfortable, but an equal.<br /><br />Started working for real later that year. It took ages to absorb that "<i>yes, I am making <b>that much</b> money</i>".<br /><br /><b>3 years ago</b><br />I had just returned from a harrowing experience outside SL. For the first time in 7 years, I was doubting if I wanted to do this shit for the rest of my life. I disliked work, I wanted to just mooch about at home. I was also officially a fatass for the first time in my life; no one believed it was ever possible, but there it was... Volunteered reluctantly for <strike>one</strike>two jobs and also moved work places. Later in the year, set a personal record for number of consecutive hours awake. Not sure how much work got done towards the tail end of the marathon, but remember inhaling multiple esspressos and falling asleep in the elevator.<br /><br /><b>2 years ago</b><br />Drop a steady income and a decent place of work to cast myself out into the blue yonder again. Not that it wasn't necessary, but I had wondered if growing "older" would have meant an end to such life changing decisions. Apparently not. For the first time, I'd be living on my own outside SL <i>and</i> not doing a real job. Scary.<br /><br /><b>1 year ago</b><br />Wonder how the hell I'd ever get to grips with the mounds of books and papers that are required reading for research. Wonder if I'd ever finish. Oh, and figure out that the UK is no different really from any other place I've been to. Have recurring flashbacks from childhood holidays to rolling grassland and tilled fields.<br /><br /><b>Last week</b><br />Swot and type furiously and juggle a few clashing deadlines. Reach another personal milestone; handle things without crashing and burning even when down with the flu. Other than the fever, optimism abounds.<br /><br /><b>Today</b><br />Realize that I've (just barely) spent more time outside SL on my own than in it living with my parents over the last decade or so. And I'm still not finished here. Haven't got a clue about what happens after 2006, or indeed, after this semester. Ah, glorious uncertainty.<br /><br /><b>Tomorrow</b><br />Realize that if I sit on my ass writing blog posts instead of papers, I'm likely to hang around here for a lot longer than 2006...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1112616211431331422005-04-03T19:02:00.000+01:002005-04-04T13:09:05.736+01:00anonymity is optional<img src="http://img.penny-arcade.com/2004/20040319l.jpg" alt="anonymity and an audience"><br /><br />Wonder why Blogger didn't publish this the first time around? Anyway, I also like <a href="http://img.penny-arcade.com/2004/20040326l.jpg">this one</a> and <a href="http://img.penny-arcade.com/2004/20040430l.jpg">this one</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1112453651375825932005-04-02T15:32:00.000+01:002005-04-02T15:54:11.376+01:00bozoFree time, some boredom, trolling. The climbdown of a deadline adrenaline high and the detox of stress from the body. The usual. I should really find some productive thing to do next and get around to doing it. It's the starting that's the hard part for the moment (insert a cliche about a journey of a thousand miles blah di blah di blah here).<br /><br />I've committed a mortal sin. Ok, not a mortal sin, but an utter waste of time. I've been arguing on das intarweb again. A <b>very</b> non PC reason for why this is a bad idea can be found <a href="http://www.thekodclan.com/members/img/ThatOtherGuy.jpg">here</a> (don't click that if you get easily offended. I warn you).<br /><br />And, not for the first time, it occured to me. I've gotten back into the habit of <a href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SetTheBozoBit">setting the bozo bit</a> on people. Arrogant ? Probably. But it does tend to increase the signal to noise ratio in an argument if you can ignore the name callers, the flingers of verbal poo and the just plain silly. That's another reason why I dislike the movement from good old Usenet to these new fangled forums and blogs. Any newsreader worth it's salt has a wonderful device called a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_file">kill file</a>. Think someone is an idiot ? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plonk">plonk</a> him. Problem solved.<br /><br />Incidentally, <a href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WelcomeVisitors">C2</a> (from the article linked above) claims to be the oldest wiki. It has some informative articles, lots of familiar names contribute and even has a very informative section on <a href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RunningYourOwnWikiFaq">rolling yer own</a>. I've been reading it on and off for a few years for the pithy quotes and insight. With the recent interest in wikis in certain quarters, it might just be of interest to others.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1112375835218737292005-04-01T17:57:00.000+01:002005-04-01T18:17:15.220+01:00who ?I watched the first episode of the latest <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/">Doctor Who</a> last weekend. From the <a href="http://www.itnsl.lk/">ITN</a> screenings in the 80s, I recall a white haired chap with a green telephone booth. Was I oblivious to television ? I think I was. Subsequent revisionist reading brought me up to speed, but I wonder if everyone raving about this in <a href="http://www.slashdot.org">Slashdot</a> belongs to an older generation. I certainly can't remember much beyond the basic plot... What compelled me to watch this first episode was curiosity. The same reason I watched the Charlie's Angels movies. And how well those turned out, huh ?<br /><br />Been peering at messaging systems recently for some work I've been doing. I've been pointed towards <a href="http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/papers/styx.html">Styx</a>, a very cool looking filesystem abstraction layer. Still need to look at it, of course. Till then, I'm using <a href="http://openjms.sourceforge.net/">JMS</a>. Oddly enough, J2EE and it's related bits and pieces are beginning to grow on me a bit. Some of it (I concede this very reluctantly) are beginning to make sense.<br /><br />And finally, I've been spending a bit of time adding to the <a href="http://www.eggcorns.com/">Eggcorns</a> database. Interesting, if you're into wordplay and the like ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1112291986707603892005-03-31T18:03:00.000+01:002005-03-31T18:59:46.710+01:00sick. deathly sick.Have report to finish. Spent most of yesterday in a delirious haze. Feeling thoroughly sorry for myself. Must finish. report. Must. crawl. out of bed. Had to do a presentation today at <a href="http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/kmanor/">The King's Manor</a> anyway.<br /><br />Must crawl into a nice warm hole and die. I feel (to quote one of my Ma's favourite idioms) like <i>death warmed up</i>. And served with a nice garnish of headaches and chills.<br /><br />Chundering like a mofo every 20 minutes (or feeling like it) ain't helping either. <br /><i>Oh, is that steak and mushroom pie ? blech</i><br />Goddamn flu.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1112119434822796672005-03-29T18:32:00.000+01:002005-03-29T19:33:07.076+01:00if programmers were like seismologists ...<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7317057/page/2/">Scientists predicted more earthquakes in Sumatra</a>. <br /><br />But no one knew when they'd occur. Or indeed, if more will occur after last night. Or why this one didn't cause a tsunami. Yes, there are theories, but no hard evidence. Was this one too deep under the seabed to jolt the water ? Did it occur in an area of greater depth and did the water absorb the energy ? Was it a different <i>type</i> of quake altogether ? A so called <i>subduction</i> quake as opposed to the <i>upthrust</i> type that happened on the 26th of December ? Ask a seismologist that (and several TV channels did) and you'd get the verbal equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders. And a weaselly <i>"we need more data to confirm our theory"</i> accompanying a shifty eyed expression.<br /><br />Compare this with the lot of the mythical programmer.<br /><i>So, underpaid hireling, when's this project gonna be done ? Two weeks ? What ? You want more ? Ok, make it three. What ? What's that you say ? You don't even know all the requirements yet ? Oh, all right then. A month. How's that ? You can do all this in a month right? You have lots of fancy degrees in <strike>Seismology, Geology and Oceanography</strike>Computer Science... you should be able to figure it out.</i><br /><br />Fire the lot of them, I say*<br /><br />On a slightly more serious note, does anyone know where I can find reasonably hires maps of the Sumatran region (ie: ones that cover the Indian Ocean) ? They'd need to be public domain/free for non commercial use and drawn/reproduced to some sort of consistent scale. If you know of where I may find some, please leave a comment, thanks. IM or email would work too.<br /><br />---<br />*<i>If you didn't detect sarcasm and/or humour in the above, at least a little bit, then please take several doses of <b>teh funnay</b> and report in for laughter therapy. Your sense of humour will thank you.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1112037521905305262005-03-28T20:18:00.000+01:002005-03-28T20:18:41.910+01:00Soo-NAH-mee ?The gods were listening. I swore privately to myself that I wouldn't blog again till the dreaded piece of creative writing was over and done with. Written,<br />polished, bound and handed in. It would take, I promised myself, an <i>earthshattering event</i> to get me to blog before the 1st of April. Well, screw this for a lark.<br /><br /><a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/usweax.htm">8.2 earthquake off Sibolga, Indonesia</a><br /><br />Is it possible to sound any more self obsessed than that ? Probably not. So to all those in the danger areas, stay safe, head for the fricking hills, don't stop to admire the nice waves or break out the bloody surfboards. Once is enough for anyone's lifetime, I think.<br /><br />First it was the day after Christmas, now the day after Easter. Day of a full moon <a href="http://www.lankalibrary.com/Bud/poya2.htm">poya</a>, two days after a full moon. Someone up there doesn't seem to like us much, huh ?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7381888.post-1111696140699629742005-03-24T19:54:00.000+00:002005-03-24T20:32:58.363+00:00meanderingI am <a href="http://www.indo.com/cgi-bin/dist/place1=@173803/place2=@173953">5482 miles from home</a>, give or take a few, since that database doesn't contain an entry for York. And the closest match is Leeds, which is about 25 miles from here.<br /><br />And Salem is upto his "see if you can break someone's neck" tricks again. Named after the <a href="http://teentvmovies.about.com/library/blsabrinasalemprof.htm">bewitched feline</a>, this cat is built like a huge, black furred tank. He likes perching on laptop keyboards (the idiot), getting locked in rooms and then meowing plainitively till someone lets him out (the fiend, he times it till everyone goes to sleep before he meows) and tripping yours truly down the stairs. Doubtless, he's in cahoots with injurylawyers4u or something. Why can't he be like the other two and stay the heck out of the way ? At least he's lucky I <i>like</i> cats. My ex-flatmate didn't.<br /><br />And finally, I installed <a href="http://www.kubuntu.org.uk/">KUbuntu</a> for a laugh. Nice, shiny <a href="http://www.kde.org">KDE</a> 3.4 goodness with <a href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org">Ubuntu</a> under the hood. A bit rough around the edges, but the applications that depend on KDE are so fricking fantastic that they're worth a blog entry on their own... later. After I submit the multiple reports and do the multiple presentations that are due next week.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0