Strawberries. I like strawberries. I also like shrimp. Beans are most tastey, even the frozen variety. In addition to being things that I like, these disparate foods have something else in common... they found themselves floating in my toilet tonight. How? Let me tell you.
This strange stew of frozen goods, along with pop cicles, bratwurst, porkchops, bread, frozen peas, and a variety of other things was discovered, by me, while making dinner. The Queen had asked for frozen corn to be the vegetable for dinner tonight, and my search for said corn lead me to the chest freezer on our landing, which in turn lead to the discovery that our freezer had been off for several day.
There is nothing in life -- not even children -- that can prepare you to handle a discovery such as this. The combination of smells, sights, and sounds is enough to make even Chuck Norris sick to his stomach. Suffice to say, I did not relish the job of removing the contents, but I knew my wife wouldn't/couldn't, so I did the right thing and cleaned it out.
I pray that none of you ever experience such a thing as this.
March 31, 2009
March 23, 2009
Transformational Thinking
Over the weekend I was talking with Dad about technology. The conversation started with a simple question about my Blackberry, "Is it a phone with the Internet, or the Internet with a phone?" Seems simple enough, and at first blush maybe even a bit trite, banal and irrelevant. However, I would posit that it is a highly relevant question.
Consider it like this: if its the Internet with a phone, who holds control? The people. If its a phone with the Internet, who holds the control? The service providers.
The transformational question is simply this: what would it take to shift the paradigm away from cell phones to truly pocket computers with sip capabilities? The answer, incidentally, is fairly short: a nation-wide wireless network.
How hard would it be to build a nation-wide wireless network? Lets run some simple numbers with some basic assertions. Lets assume that the whole country is flat and that buildings aren't an issue. Lets also assume we'd be building this network on existing technology -- lets use a basic ProCurve 530AP as an example. We have an effective radius of 100m. The effective coverage of a single access-point then is π*100², or 31416m² or 31km². Figuring that the continental US is 8,080,464.25 km²... you'd need about 260,000 access-points. Which, incidentally would only require about $91,000,000 to purchase, but now you've got to get towers, power, and internet connectivity to every one of these guys... figure you can get power to them for $5/mo and Internet for $45/mo, and now we're talking about a monthly cost of $13,000,000... $100 million to setup, $157 million/year to run, and that says nothing about maintenance costs, or the fact that many areas would need more than 1 AP for service. I think a conservative estimate would put this project at the $5 billion mark with little trouble -- we all know how the government can screw up even the simplest projects.
SO, if every man, woman and child kicked in about $15 we could pay for this thing... and everyone would have free broadband... wtf? WHY HAVEN'T WE DONE THIS YET? Imagine everyone having free access to the Internet... everywhere... most smartphones that I've seen are SIP capable (on a blackberry, you can see that it is by dialling ##000000 and scrolling down). I'll tell you why this won't happen: corporate greed.
Its amazing to me that a few pigdogs can halt progress because they want to be richer...
Consider it like this: if its the Internet with a phone, who holds control? The people. If its a phone with the Internet, who holds the control? The service providers.
The transformational question is simply this: what would it take to shift the paradigm away from cell phones to truly pocket computers with sip capabilities? The answer, incidentally, is fairly short: a nation-wide wireless network.
How hard would it be to build a nation-wide wireless network? Lets run some simple numbers with some basic assertions. Lets assume that the whole country is flat and that buildings aren't an issue. Lets also assume we'd be building this network on existing technology -- lets use a basic ProCurve 530AP as an example. We have an effective radius of 100m. The effective coverage of a single access-point then is π*100², or 31416m² or 31km². Figuring that the continental US is 8,080,464.25 km²... you'd need about 260,000 access-points. Which, incidentally would only require about $91,000,000 to purchase, but now you've got to get towers, power, and internet connectivity to every one of these guys... figure you can get power to them for $5/mo and Internet for $45/mo, and now we're talking about a monthly cost of $13,000,000... $100 million to setup, $157 million/year to run, and that says nothing about maintenance costs, or the fact that many areas would need more than 1 AP for service. I think a conservative estimate would put this project at the $5 billion mark with little trouble -- we all know how the government can screw up even the simplest projects.
SO, if every man, woman and child kicked in about $15 we could pay for this thing... and everyone would have free broadband... wtf? WHY HAVEN'T WE DONE THIS YET? Imagine everyone having free access to the Internet... everywhere... most smartphones that I've seen are SIP capable (on a blackberry, you can see that it is by dialling ##000000 and scrolling down). I'll tell you why this won't happen: corporate greed.
Its amazing to me that a few pigdogs can halt progress because they want to be richer...
March 12, 2009
Ubuntu 8.10 64-bit on an HP nx9420
I had been delaying loading a 64-bit disto on my nx9420 since I wasn't entirely sure it would be kosher, but yesterday I had some time on my hands, so I threw caution to the wind and gave it a whirl. The 64-bit version of 8.10 isn't as solid as the 32-bit version; I say that because I had a couple of issues: 1) NetworkManager is still broken garbage, 2) getting the supplicant drivers to work for wireless encryption was not automatic, 3) goofy issues with xul and firefox, 4) the menu.
I've contributed a couple of posts to my loathing of NetworkManager, so I won't go in to that any further. I'll simply leave it at: INSTALL WICD FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY.
The supplicant drivers not working out of the box really threw me for a loop. It'd been YEARS since I had to manually mangle those, so I'd mostly forgotten. Fortunately, `man` steered me right. The crux of it is that the wpasupplicant package doesn't create the /etc/default/wpasupplicant file. I hand created the file and put in only one line: ENABLE=0 After this, you're 'supposed' to be able to do a `/etc/init.d/dbus restart` and have things work, but I'd suggest you just reboot -- because if you restart dbus, your X session is going to go away anyways (unless you're using something like openbox). Once you've rebooted, just make sure wicd is using the wext supplicant driver (its under preferences) and you should be golden.
The whole xulrunner and firefox pissing match is probably my fault. I was doing an `apt-get dist-upgrade` and I think half the packages were installed but the finish-up scripts hadn't run. SO, when I ran firefox, it crashed because of a suitable GRE interpretor. I was able to get around this by manually running `xulrunner --register-global` before apt-get had finished its thing. So this was really a fairly small issue.
The main menu in Ubuntu is heinous. Really, its the stallwart Windows 95 Start button... but we're 14 years on from that particular 'innovation', so why haven't we made any real progress? Vista -- and dont' get me started on this -- has a fairly good Start Button (except that its painfully slow because its an eye-candy resource hog!) Linux Mint, and several other distros, has an EXCELLENT start button that is very much like Vista's. This is the 'slab' or 'uslab' start-menu. Unfortunately, I don't want to use Mint -- they've over branded the hell out of it, and I find it particularly annoying. (I just stopped myself from raging about Mint, so...) The beauty is, of course, that Mint's menu (a.k.a. mintmenu) is a DEB, so I just downloaded it and installed... added it to the panel, and BOOM! Instant goodness! I had tried a couple of other slab-esque start menus, but they all sucked and weren't as refined as Mint's. The MAJOR downside of this is that mintmenu has a 'dependancy' on two other mint packages, which in turn are dependant on other packages, etc... so if you let apt-get do its thing, you'll basically end-up upgrading to Mint. That's a problem. SO, I hand installed mintmenu. Now, apt-get barfs about unmet dependancies every time I try to do anything. I'm working on a solution to this.
One *MAJOR* bit of niceness about 64-bit ver of 8.10 is that suspend to RAM worked OUT OF THE BOX! I didn't even have to apply the patch from Stephan! W00t!
Anywho, all said and done, I'm very happy with my 64-bit install. There were some bumps in the road, but overall I don't think any of them are sufficiently bad to warrant abandoning the effort.
I've contributed a couple of posts to my loathing of NetworkManager, so I won't go in to that any further. I'll simply leave it at: INSTALL WICD FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY.
The supplicant drivers not working out of the box really threw me for a loop. It'd been YEARS since I had to manually mangle those, so I'd mostly forgotten. Fortunately, `man` steered me right. The crux of it is that the wpasupplicant package doesn't create the /etc/default/wpasupplicant file. I hand created the file and put in only one line: ENABLE=0 After this, you're 'supposed' to be able to do a `/etc/init.d/dbus restart` and have things work, but I'd suggest you just reboot -- because if you restart dbus, your X session is going to go away anyways (unless you're using something like openbox). Once you've rebooted, just make sure wicd is using the wext supplicant driver (its under preferences) and you should be golden.
The whole xulrunner and firefox pissing match is probably my fault. I was doing an `apt-get dist-upgrade` and I think half the packages were installed but the finish-up scripts hadn't run. SO, when I ran firefox, it crashed because of a suitable GRE interpretor. I was able to get around this by manually running `xulrunner --register-global` before apt-get had finished its thing. So this was really a fairly small issue.
The main menu in Ubuntu is heinous. Really, its the stallwart Windows 95 Start button... but we're 14 years on from that particular 'innovation', so why haven't we made any real progress? Vista -- and dont' get me started on this -- has a fairly good Start Button (except that its painfully slow because its an eye-candy resource hog!) Linux Mint, and several other distros, has an EXCELLENT start button that is very much like Vista's. This is the 'slab' or 'uslab' start-menu. Unfortunately, I don't want to use Mint -- they've over branded the hell out of it, and I find it particularly annoying. (I just stopped myself from raging about Mint, so...) The beauty is, of course, that Mint's menu (a.k.a. mintmenu) is a DEB, so I just downloaded it and installed... added it to the panel, and BOOM! Instant goodness! I had tried a couple of other slab-esque start menus, but they all sucked and weren't as refined as Mint's. The MAJOR downside of this is that mintmenu has a 'dependancy' on two other mint packages, which in turn are dependant on other packages, etc... so if you let apt-get do its thing, you'll basically end-up upgrading to Mint. That's a problem. SO, I hand installed mintmenu. Now, apt-get barfs about unmet dependancies every time I try to do anything. I'm working on a solution to this.
One *MAJOR* bit of niceness about 64-bit ver of 8.10 is that suspend to RAM worked OUT OF THE BOX! I didn't even have to apply the patch from Stephan! W00t!
Anywho, all said and done, I'm very happy with my 64-bit install. There were some bumps in the road, but overall I don't think any of them are sufficiently bad to warrant abandoning the effort.
FC10 on iMac == FAIL
I struck out on getting FC10 on my iMac. Not that it couldn't be done, but I can't be arsed with that kind of effort for something that is basically just a hobby box. SO, I cut my losses and installed OS X 10.3. :-( Oh well, its still a pretty sweet little rig, all things considered.
March 05, 2009
FC10 on G3 iMac
I did something rash today: I installed Fedora Core 10 on a G3 iMac. This was not accomplished without some difficulty -- and as near as I can tell, a substantial bit of luck. I hit a number of snags:
Okay, about the seven CD's. Yes, I know FC10 is available on DVD. Really, I do. However, my decrepid iMac only has a CD-ROM. SO, here's a thought: ship a base install that will get you a functional desktop without having to swap CD's like floppies of old. Holy crap.
My first attempts to fire-up X were thwarted by a missing xterm package. After carefully scouring each of the SEVEN discs, I discovered the xterm package was no where to be found. I downloaded it and installed it by hand. Not a big deal.
Unfortunately, missing xterm wasn't the biggest issue I've got with getting X going. The biggest issue is that the fbdev and ati driver do NOT work well with this chipset. I still have no graphical love. This is not so good. I've got ideas how to sort it out, but I can't get to those until I have more time.
- FC10's anaconda installer wouldn't run in graphical mode
- There isn't a documented way to launch the text mode
- Seven CD installation
- Missing `xterm` package
- botched X autodetection and FB install
Okay, about the seven CD's. Yes, I know FC10 is available on DVD. Really, I do. However, my decrepid iMac only has a CD-ROM. SO, here's a thought: ship a base install that will get you a functional desktop without having to swap CD's like floppies of old. Holy crap.
My first attempts to fire-up X were thwarted by a missing xterm package. After carefully scouring each of the SEVEN discs, I discovered the xterm package was no where to be found. I downloaded it and installed it by hand. Not a big deal.
Unfortunately, missing xterm wasn't the biggest issue I've got with getting X going. The biggest issue is that the fbdev and ati driver do NOT work well with this chipset. I still have no graphical love. This is not so good. I've got ideas how to sort it out, but I can't get to those until I have more time.
Requiescat en pacem, Maria Louise Meyer
I remember the first day I met Louise: it was the fall of '02 and I was walking home from the grocery store, alone. I suspect most people remember the first day they met Louise. On Friday, February 27th, Louise was killed in a car accident.
I found out about the accident Friday afternoon, while driving home from a client site in Iowa -- Amanda, called and told me. I was stunned. The more I think about it, the more tragic her passing is. The thing that hits me the hardest is her two boys: August and
Leonard. I can't help but think about them even now.
Jerome, Louise's husband, is understandably devastated. I can't even fathom what he's going through. As selfish as it may sound, I think trying to empathize with Jerome is what really tore me up: the thought of losing my wife, my Queen, coupled with the thought of having to
raise the kids without her love and support is just incomprehensible to me.
I went over to see Jerome this morning, and to express my condolences and found myself surrounded by Louise's friends and family -- I was staggered to see so many people from so many different places and ways of life, all bound by their kinship or friendship with Louise, were
there.
I've never lost a friend like this, and though I know she won't be the last, I'll always remember her and how her passing affected me on a personal level.
Requiescat en pacem, Maria Louise Meyer.
I found out about the accident Friday afternoon, while driving home from a client site in Iowa -- Amanda, called and told me. I was stunned. The more I think about it, the more tragic her passing is. The thing that hits me the hardest is her two boys: August and
Leonard. I can't help but think about them even now.
Jerome, Louise's husband, is understandably devastated. I can't even fathom what he's going through. As selfish as it may sound, I think trying to empathize with Jerome is what really tore me up: the thought of losing my wife, my Queen, coupled with the thought of having to
raise the kids without her love and support is just incomprehensible to me.
I went over to see Jerome this morning, and to express my condolences and found myself surrounded by Louise's friends and family -- I was staggered to see so many people from so many different places and ways of life, all bound by their kinship or friendship with Louise, were
there.
I've never lost a friend like this, and though I know she won't be the last, I'll always remember her and how her passing affected me on a personal level.
Requiescat en pacem, Maria Louise Meyer.
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