4.01.2007

musings { these dreams are made of this

I had a strange dream this morning. In reflections I think it is a mish-mash of my life with a warning in it. It was a short dream that happened between 9am and 10am this morning, during the time I refused to get up, because its Sunday damn it.

The dream started, I was on the bus riding into work, like any of the couple hundred days I've been doing it. It was spring and the day was gray. At a bus stop a girl gets on, she wearing a nurse's uniform and very pregnant. I recognize her. She was the redhead who was a few grades behind me who rode my bus back when I was in high school. Except now she is a woman (or what she looks like as a woman as my mind aged her) and a nurse. She was always mean and hateful. She sits next to me because for some reason now all the seats in the bus are full. I allow her to sit and say hi and ask her if she was who I thought she was (I knew her name in my dream but during the waking world I can't remember who she is). She says yes and we talk a little bit about what has happened since school She is pregnant and she does not know who the father is because she had never had a stable relationship that lasted for any amount of time. We ride the bus and it pulls up to our stop...Moos Tower at the U of MN. Which is not where I work, but in my dream is a place where I get off. We walk to Coffman union, it both is and isn't Coffman Union, its a cross of the U of MN student union and Augsburg College's union. She asks me if I would wait with her until she has to go to her appointment, I say yes. We walk up to the mezzanine level and find two chairs. Its cold so I share my coat with her. She falls asleep and shortly later I do, which is a first, I've never had dreams that I was sleeping in a dream before. I awake to the sound of two students picking on her. I both know and don't know these students the kind of, depending upon the angle shift between people I know. One of them shifted through a succession of guys I know, the greasy guy from student honor college, the fellow classmate accused of child molestation while babysitting, a motorhead who like El'Dorados. The other was a mish-mash of students from my CompSci class at the U of MN, the ones who were unwashed and had the social graces of young nerds. She was hurt by their comments and I defended her and drove them off. In school I hated this girl. But in my dream I defended her.

She left for her appointment and I was left alone on the mezzanine. I fall back asleep in my dream again. I awaken to two young but cute girls staring at me. They ask if I play D&D and I say yes and they squeal with girlish glee. One of them asks me to come over and look at her character sheet and give an opinion of whether it was a good character or not. I do while, her character sheet is pretty lame, and pre-generated. I turn around and her friend had moved my chair, and in its place she put a folding table on which they had various things for sale. They were all free D&D modules that were printed off the internet and sold for $10-$15 a piece. They were all crap. I was upset my chair, which was by a big window and was warm was moved. I felt duped. I was upset at the price of the gaming modules they were selling. I looked around for my chair. All around me the mezzanine level turned into a bazaar of sorts where college students were selling wares of all types. In dismay I decide to find the campus movie theater and see a movie. I go downstairs. Its suddenly night, the college students have cleared out and the lower level is full of people in suits, it looks like the lobby of a nice hotel, like the one we stayed in San Francisco. No one acknowledges my presence I go to the bell hop who looks at me with mild disgust.

I wake up before I can ask him where the movie theater is or what's playing.

3.30.2007

casual_friday { star trek + NIN (nsfw)



(a friend sent me this video, thanks Baz!)

tech_support { Solaris 10 command to make managing HBAs easier

/usr/sbin/fcinfo hba-port


Fricking sweet! No more 'prtpicl' + 'grep' anymore. Thank you SUN.

Output looks like this:

# fcinfo hba-port
HBA Port WWN: 210000e08b1958a9
OS Device Name: /dev/cfg/c3
Manufacturer: QLogic Corp.
Model: 375-3102-xx
Firmware Version: 3.3.117
FCode/BIOS Version: ISP2300 Host Adapter Driver: 1.14.09 03/08/04
Type: N-port
State: online
Supported Speeds: 1Gb 2Gb
Current Speed: 2Gb
Node WWN: 200000e08b1958a9
HBA Port WWN: 210000e08b190fa9
OS Device Name: /dev/cfg/c2
Manufacturer: QLogic Corp.
Model: 375-3102-xx
Firmware Version: 3.3.117
FCode/BIOS Version: ISP2300 Host Adapter Driver: 1.14.09 03/08/04
Type: N-port
State: online
Supported Speeds: 1Gb 2Gb
Current Speed: 2Gb
Node WWN: 200000e08b190fa9

3.29.2007

Music/Threads { ...or Why The World is Conspiring to Get Me To Like Imogen Heap

So I'm going through the websites and myspace sites of my favorite musical artists and groups, not having checked anything out for a while. Mostly I was looking for RSS feeds for news and tour dates by the artists (musicians - please use RSS feeds on your sites). Most of the 'official sites' have plenty of info but no feeds, which means I have to periodically check the sites to see what is new, which I often forget to do. But most of the artists I like seem to have myspace sites as well (ugh, what ugliness has that foisted onto the internets?), and along with it blogs and automatic feeds for said blogs. Best I can do, I guess.

Well, as I'm checking out Joshua Radin (folk musician, had a couple of great tracks on "Scrubs", [Zach Braff is his old roommate]), so I thought I'd check out his site. Seems he's dating Schuyler Fisk [Sissy Spacek's daughter, she did a film with Rachael Cook, who I used to work for years ago]. Anyway, as I'm checking out his tour dates, etc., I also see that he lists Imogen Heap under his top friends. The seed is planted.

So I'm off to check out other artists I like, Brian Transeau (bt) being one of them. So sad, looks like someone stole a whole ton of his equipment including his computers that had a ton of tour stuff on them. Well, there in his myspace page is a link to Imogen Heap.

So a folk musician from Ohio and an electronica musician from Maryland both like Imogen Heap. Not a huge leap, but its a nice little thread between my musical tastes.

So I'm off to check out what Kate Rusby is up to. Wow, she has a myspace page too. And there, third times a charm, is Imogen Heap in her friends list. Now granted, they are both British artists, and may know each other (Rusby is a folk musician from Barnsley, Heap a London artist).

Further, it appears that Heap covered a Radin song at some point, Heap was in the band "Frou Frou" that I loved their 'Let Go' track, which was on the 'Garden State' soundtrack (which Radin's roomie Braff directed), along with "Lebanese Blonde" by Thievery Corporation, which was another one of the bands I was checking out.

Observation: Many of the artists I like have these little connections to one another. I wonder if that means my tastes are more consistent than I think they are (i.e. not as eclectic), or that great minds think alike, or maybe my tastes are becoming insular.

Now I'll know there is a conspiracy afoot if I can find major links between Heap and Weezer, Tool, Muse, and Lisa Gerrard.

3.28.2007

location { urban waterfall, downtown Rochester


Man made waterfall off the flood management canal, aka Zumbro South Branch, downtown Rochester.

3.27.2007

musings { more coffeehouse thoughts

I've always wanted to replace all the instances of the word 'feet' in the bible with the word 'penis' and see how it reads.

musings { another day, another sit by the window


Yesterday was down right tropical for MN in March, 77F in Rochester. Today 63F and as I sit sipping the remainder of Chai Tea (I'm trying to decrease my caffine intake, a little at a time to avoid the major headaches, sadly I had one yesterday), I watch the storm clouds roll in.

history { War Nerd on '300'

He does a damn good job of summing up '300''s failings from a historical perspective. And its funny to read. Questionable if it is suitable for work.


http://www.exile.ru/2007-March-23/war_nerd.html



PS - The Exile was one of my standard reads when they first started out. I thought they closed shop, its good to see they are still around.

3.26.2007

politics { Bill Maher on Valerie Plame

WoW { Ode to Pernox

I am the rogue. I strike from stealth and prey on the weak, the tired, the distracted. I am the death that watches from the shadows. I am the thing that goes bump in the night. I am the boogey-man of children's stories. I am the last thing you will most likely never see. Fear my embrace for it is a lingering death or a quick snap. Be afraid of the shadows and the dark places, for that is where I will be.


(little something I whipped up for a posting on a forum where people were asked to describe their World of Warcraft classes, Pernox is my lvl 55 Undead Rogue)

musings { Burgess Street

Nerdwife and I read this article this weekend. These fatal shootings happened less than 2 blocks from where we used to live. I knew this area, I knew this house. I lived in the North End for 12 years. My family had lived there a lot longer. When I was a kid this neighborhood was a 'safe' place of blue collar families, honest people, and elderly retirees. Neighborhoods go in cycles, and this was no different. Around 1995 the urban rot that had started to infest the rest of the city came to my neighborhood. It came in the form of a crack house across the street. When the retirees moved into nursing homes or passed on, often their children sold their homes to whomever would buy, in most cases slum lords or shady land lords. The people who moved in were a couple, he was a drug dealer, she was a prostitute. For the next 3 years we on my block lived in fear. Because there were all kinds of people all times of the day and night going in and out. We called the police when we witnessed crimes but often everyone would flee the house before they would arrive. In 1998 three people were killed in a pickup truck on the corner of Western Ave and Burgess St in a gang-related hit. When we left in 2004 I thought the neighborhood was starting to swing back in to the upside. Families were moving back in, people were cleaning up their houses and the neighborhood. At least that was what appeared to be happening. The block, 2 blocks down where this happened was still rougher. We needed more police presence. Many of us asked the city. In 2000 my house was broken into, luckily no one was at home and only material things were taken. In 2004 there was another attempt, but our new doors and windows kept them out. When we opened the police call and officer arrived about 3 hours later. He apologized for being so late. He was only one of 3 cars on patrol that night due to budget cuts. St Paul is a city of 310,000 people.

3.23.2007

economics { fair trade illustrated via World of Warcraft movie

They did a great job too! Anyone who plays WoW knows on average what a stack of 20 [Runecloth] go for, it, along with [Silk], [Wool], and [Linen] are the cornerstones of many realm economies. Comparable to cotton, coffee, tea, and a myriad of other commodities in our real world. While I don't like to compare effort in the digital fantasy world of Azeroth to the efforts of farmers, manufacturers, and people in the real world, whose toil directly impacts their daily life, [Runecloth] especially while not hard to 'farm', it takes time and requires in game expenditures (to repair durability, replace ammo or materials for potions, etc.). So I hope people who play WoW and do not know about the effort of farmer's in the Real World can appreciate, at least at some level their plight and understand the harmful effects of monopolies on markets, on trade, on people.



PS: All you fricking AH-whores on Proudmoore jacking the prices of everything so you can make epic flying mount money be warned, I am going to be using my Auctioneer Mod's powers for good and bring the damn prices back down to more reasonable by undercutting your asses. Market this motherfuckas! :-)

on call { digital seance

Communing with the machine spirits of a sick machine is a lot like peeling back the lid on a tupperware you know has been sitting in the back of the fridge for a long time. You never know what you are going to get and often it stinks. You establish the connection and start sifting the data you get things like this:

Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 ^Mpanic[cpu450]/thread=2a10096bd40: BAD TRAP: type=31 rp=2a10096ba00 addr=91 mmu_fsr=0 occurred in module "unix" due to a NULL pointer dereference
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 sched: trap type = 0x31
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 addr=0x91
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 pid=0, pc=0x10395a0, sp=0x2a10096b2a1, tstate=0x8800001606, context=0x0
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 g1-g7: 1048f2c, 141e000, 147d738, 3001edf2000, fffffffffffffffd, 0, 2a10096bd40
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 000002a10096b720 unix:die+80 (31, 2a10096ba00, 91, 0, 0, 0)
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 %l0-3: 0000000000000000 0000000001423f58 000002a10096ba00 000002a10096b8f0
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 %l4-7: 0000000000000031 000003002379b100 000003000e4553b0 0000000001038c00
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 000002a10096b800 unix:trap+8e4 (2a10096ba00, 0, 10000, 10200, 0, fffe)
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 %l0-3: 0000000000000001 0000000000000000 0000000001489bd8 0000000000000031
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 %l4-7: 0000000001489ac0 0000000000000001 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 000002a10096b950 unix:ktl0+48 (91, 3001edfa000, 30025798048, 1489bd8, 16, 0)
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 %l0-3: 0000000000000007 0000000000001400 0000008800001606 000000000102ec9c
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 %l4-7: 0000000001489800 0000030051e9a316 0000000000000000 000002a10096ba00
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 000002a10096baa0 unix:setbackdq+29c (0, 0, 1489bd8, 1489bd8, 0, 0)
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 %l0-3: 0000000001049ed0 0000000000000001 000003001edfa000 ffffffffffffffff
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007 %l4-7: 000003001edfa090 0000000000000003 0000000000000091 00000000014ec800
Mar 23 04:58:24 2007
Mar 23 04:58:25 2007 syncing file systems...
Mar 23 04:58:25 2007 ^Mpanic[cpu450]/thread=2a10096bd40: BAD TRAP: type=34 rp=1487830 addr=79 mmu_fsr=0
Mar 23 04:58:25 2007 dumping to /dev/md/dsk/d20, offset 8390377472, content: kernel
Mar 23 04:58:28 2007
Mar 23 04:58:28 2007 ^Mpanic[cpu450]/thread=2a10096bd40: BAD TRAP: type=34 rp=14860f0 addr=79 mmu_fsr=0
Mar 23 04:58:28 2007 dump aborted: please record the above information!
Mar 23 04:58:30 2007 rebooting...
Mar 23 04:58:33 2007 ERROR: CPU RED_State Reset has occurred.
Mar 23 04:58:33 2007 OBP->SC mailbox is busy, can't send.
Mar 23 04:58:33 2007 Failed to send Set Reboot Info mailbox command
Mar 23 04:58:33 2007 Resetting...


You then need to start stepping through the cryptic messages and start piecing together seemingly different events like a digital Sherlock Holmes. Its one of the aspects of my job I love. The mystery. The hunt for the truth. The interaction with the vendor. The sexy underwear.

casual friday { nothing casual

So I was going to post another great music video or funny post, something from my CubeZooTV channel on YouTube. However as of this morning >50% of my bookmarked videos are no longer available.

I also heard on the NPR that Viacom is suing Google for $1B (over half of what Google paid) over copyright infringement because they have to spend too much time and effort getting their IP removed from YouTube and that YouTube is not doing enough to prevent uploading (YouTube says in no uncertain terms you should not post if you don't own the rights, what else are they to do?). In addition, they argue, Google is getting increased ad revenue off of Viacom's IP. I'm not going to touch whether this is true, untrue, wrong or right, who has moral high ground, who wins, who loses (though I think we as consumers always tend to lose).

I was worried when YouTube was purchased by Google that stuff like this would start to happen. YouTube is/was an amazing place. Google has a pocketbook, which means it is a target.

I think when company's do actions like this it cuts people off from them. The smart companies and artists are realizing that people like to share things, especially music videos, and encourage the proliferation of their product/idea/music/creativeness. The old, archaic institution don't understand the new marketplace and instead their greed fuels them to do stupid things like sue their customers, or try to stifle competition.

In the heyday of Napster I thought something special and magical was going on, millions of people were sharing their music and their videos. It violated the old mindset of 'ownership' and companies who could not adapt and figure out a new ways to make money cried foul and thief and many other things and the world became a more disconnected place, a lesser place. Companies sue their customers, criminalize grandmas. Extort freely and sanctioned by draconian IP laws and DRM. Where now in the new legal framework of the old regime and mindset anyone who rips a CD to digital formats is a criminal.

The spirit of free exchange has been killed.

What happened to Napster will happen to YouTube.

But in every age, Renegades remain.




UPDATE: DeluTube allows you to view deleted YouTube videos, I guess they stay on the servers for a time: http://youtube.infamousx.com/

Viacom vs Google...the Daily Show perspective:

3.20.2007

politics { loyalty

Sadly 'theshow' with zeFrank is R.I.P. But this show in his last week of of the show I think hit on a very poignant point. I won't try to explain it because I think he does it well and will defer to his words:

3.18.2007

casual friday { flatbeat




mr. oizo

3.13.2007

tech { vi by M$



ganked from http://blogs.sun.com/marigan/entry/how_the_vi_editor_would

anxious { ready for the snow to be gone

Its almost gone, almost but not quite. Today will be 62F, so hopefully. I might break the bicycle out tonight and start tuning it up...after I get rid of the xmas tree...and clear up the garage...*sigh*

This morning was a series of unfortunate events. Alarm clock was turned off so Nerdwife and I overslept. The pilot light had blown out on the H2O heater, so we did not have hot water (it was still warm).

I didn't go into the office. I diverted to DCC to work, someplace with a window where I could see outside. I stood in the sun at the bus stop and soaked it up. It felt good, I felt calm. I could smell burning garbage somewhere.

That is one thing about Rochester, the smells. Its not a big city, but the air quality is poor. In the summer you get smells from agricultural endeavors that ring the city, but that's not the source of the bad smells. The air has a stagnant, stifling quality to it. The constant development that rings the city, as well as the field work makes the air dusty and dirty. The multiple power generation plants the main one of which is coal burning (and the other which is waste burning) cause smog. Rochester is kind of in a valley, so the air does not move much unless there is a strong wind.

3.12.2007

review { (book) "Ravenor: Rogue"



Ravenor Rogue
author: Dan Abnett
publisher: Black Library (Games Workshop)

synopsis: Third book in the Inquisitor Ravenor series. The book picks up where 'Ravenor: Returned' leaves off, except now the Inquisitor has been on 'special condition' for too long and the Ordos wants him to return to duty. But Ravenor refuses and continues to hunt his arch-nemesis Zygmunt Molotch, someone he has been hunting for over 70 years. Add into this the threat of the emergence of the daemon Slyte. Who was supposed to manifest before 403.M41, its now 404.M41, has it happened? Has the timeline been changed enough so it won't? Or will someone close to Ravenor betray him and bring ruin upon the Imperium.

review: Its hard to write a book review, so much I want to say, yet I don't want to create a spoiler, which sadly means these reviews are rarely helpful I guess, but oh well. Another excellent book by Dan Abnett. This book is not due out in the States until April, but I purchased a copy from across the pond because I couldn't wait. I thoroughly enjoy the Inquisitor Ravenor series. I find it actually better than the Inquisitor Eisnehorn series, but its ok because the two dove-tail with each other. Ravenor was a student of Eisenhorn, who sponsored him to become a full Imperial Inquisitor. Abnett once again manages to capture the gritty, meat-grinder of life that is the Imperium of Man in the Warhammer 40k universe. He manages to set the mood and the tensions such that I was actually creeped out in parts, especially those involving the emergence of the daemon Slyte. His characters, much like I've mentioned in my reviews of the 'Tanith First and Only' series are 3-dimensional and real. The book's ending, which could be misconstrued as a fizzle is actually genius. I hesitate to mention it here because I don't want to give it away, but if you had read carefully through the other two books and this one, it is brilliant and fits. Once again the locations where the Inquisitor and his warband travel feel real. The hardships they encounter are painful. And the ambiguity of who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys is both obvious and smeared in places. Dan Abnett does an excellent job of not only developing the protagonists well, but puts as much effort, and in some case more into the antagonists. His villains range from the anti-hero to the outright malevolent. Molotch is perfectly developed, a Dr. Moriarty to Ravenor's Holmes.

I am sad because this book closes the trilogy. Of the trilogy, currently 'Ravenor: Returned' is my favorite, but this book stands strong.

The end of the book leaves a taste of a new book Dan Abnett is working on involving the 'Iron Snakes' Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. The teaser chapters they put at the back of this book were enough to whet my appetite for more.

overall: solid A

3.09.2007

casual friday { War Photographer (video)



Vikings, guitar battles, roadies, giant robots. It has it all!

3.08.2007

quiz { I'm a ninja


My score on The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test:

Rogue Ninja

(You scored 10 Honor, 1 Justice, 5 Adventure, and 8 Individuality!)


You are as quiet as the wind, deadly as a viper and you follow no master. You are a Rogue Ninja. Let no one say you are without honor, lest they meet a quiet and questionable end.Dress as you like and keep your knives close. You'll do just fine



Link: The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test

tech/work { National Shutdown Day - March 24

National Shutdown Day, March 24 2007.

Workers of the world unite! I mean shutdown!

From their website, alternate uses for your computer:

3.07.2007

emo { NoDak on emo slack



Welcome to the 1990s NoDak.

more musings { the sidewalk

Ok, so I've calmed down after the family tech support affair.

I drank some coffee. Shut off work and spent the last 20 minutes listening to my 0xDEADBEEF playlist on iTunes and watching the world go by outside the window. I find this calming. I wrote a little in my personal journal. Here is what I've seen. This is what I've felt.

The airport shuttle come and pickup some people waiting at the coffeeshop.

An elderly Somali man wander slowly down the street disappearing from view, coming back 10 minutes later. Weather lines and sadness on his face. Why is he sad? What's his story?

I watched someone I call the 'bag lady'. I do not know who she is, but I've seen her all over town. In the subway (the term used in Rochester for the underground and above ground tunnel and skyway system that links together almost all of downtown). On the bus going to the Apache Mall. And, as now, wandering the streets. I've seen her with kids, but not for a long time. The last few months I've seen her around has been without what I believed were her children, but with a sad look, almost pained on her face. Is she ill? Is she homeless? What's her story?

I see the owner of the art gallery across the street, or at least I assume him to be the owner, he is a twin almost for the java-jock at the coffeeshop here. There is a sign in to window, store closing, 50% off. There are 3 stores on this block with similar signs. Why is the store closing? The rug store next to the coffeeshop is closing because the owner has the delusion of opening a bar...despite the fact there is a Pub two doors down from him and an upscale tapas and wine bar next to that. The furniture store is closing after 50+ years because the owner is retiring. The other furniture store is closing for a reason I have not been able to find out yet. The coffeeshop I am sitting in luckily will remain at least for a little while. I hope they last, they're the last local one. The rest are franchises or have closed already. Nothing in this town is open past 9pm it seems.

I see an endless stream of cars, SUVs, vans, and trucks...big loud trucks flow by. They blend into the scenery.

The sky is blue, the Sun is shining.

Kids, well technically teenagers, from the Children's Theater around the corner come in and order smoothies...there's still 10 inches of snow. The noise of the blender intrudes on my playlist. I'm listening to Buffalo Springfield's 'For What Its Worth'. Students and nurses start to filter by on the way to the Mayo employee lot down by Dos Amigos. This daily exodus starts around 3:30pm.

I want to ride my bike.

Winter continues.

The 6D city bus goes by, I've never bothered to look up that route. I take the 7/7A/7N.

I see people I know walk by, they do not see me behind the glass.

I think of the Cities.

I think of San Francisco.

I think of next weekend. We are hosting a dinner party.

I dream of being alone, my INTP side bleeding through in reaction to stress.

An odd meeting invite at work pops up...I contemplate if I should be worried. When did I become so paranoid and cynical at work?

I go back to thinking about Bag Lady and think of the other homeless person I used to see and realize I have not seen him since last summer. I think about the transient couple who used to ask me for money, the couple who a friend, who didn't have any money gave her mittens to because it was cold. I've haven't seen them since last spring.

Rochester is not friendly to those who are homeless or poor.

I think of someone I know in the Graduate School who is from the south who suffers from S.A.D. and hates the winter. He needs a date.

I need a haircut.

The nerd store in Rochester is weak.

An elderly couple from Michigan stop and contemplate the furniture store. Are they here because of the clinic? Maybe, they check a map and drive on.

I've been unfair to a co-worker. I need to rectify that, I still consider him a friend, but I've been hard on him.

I've been unfair to my team lead as well. He means well, but he does get in the way at times.

Le Tigre is awesome.

So is RJD2.

The Oak Street Cinema is going under again. I wish I had the money, I would buy that theater and restore it. It would be cool to own a movie theater and show cool films and movies. It would be cool to own a coffeehouse. Or would it?

Escalades are obscene. So are Navigators. They occur with high frequency in this town. The guy driving the Escalade looks like a twat, but that's not fair of me. I don't know him. He comes into the coffee shop. Its not his Escalade, he's a chauffeur. I remind myself to not be a twat and stop judging.

But this is just a game.

musings { family tech support, or why I'm not a nice person

[prepare thyself, this be a major rant]

I'm a terrible son and a terrible grandson.

Here's why. I get pissed at my family. I get pissed at them because they ask me to help them with their computer problems.

Its not all their fault. I bring some of this on myself. I'm the one who purchased an iMac for my father, so he wouldn't buy a 386 laptop with black and white monitor and windows 3.1 from a pawn shop. I'm the one who purchased a brand new Windows XP machine for my grandmother when the old one she had, donated graciously by a 'friend' of the family and held together with duct tape, literally exploded. I'm the one who installed the Operating Systems for them, hardened them so that they would not be instantly 'pwn3d' when they set foot into cyberspace. Configured their crappy ISP software (Juno for my grandmother, ECE for my father) because the tech support at those places is what happens when you think you know something, but then binge drink until the pain goes away, or you smoke way too much pot and listen to Pink Floyd backwards. I did all this, so I am to blame.

Why am I upset? Simple. I'm never the first one they call, I'm always the last. They tell me I'm the only one they know who knows anything about how, as my grandma puts it, "these silly things work." Yet I am always the last to call. Before today, I never got mad at them. I, with a smile would drive to their house, spend hours undoing and fixing their machines (instead of visiting with and being with them) and getting them back online. I must be a real ass to them in someway however, because I am the last one they call.

I'm feeling a bit taken for granted. I'm feeling a bit hurt. They didn't consult me until after they had purchased Juno, or McAffee, or MSN. It doesn't work and they want me to fix it. I used to try my best to muddle through helping them. But its over. I'm done.

My father called me today as I was re-locating from the windowless office to finish my day at my favorite window at a coffeeshop in Rochester. His internet didn't work. I had a moment of deja'vu. This is exactly how my grandmother's call started not three days earlier. They had taken their iMac to a friends house to use her DSL to download the security updates. This is not a bad thing, as there were 16 updates to download, and it would have taken days over dial-up, and ECE disconnects after an hour, because they're the kind of ISP that couldn't find its ass with two hands, a hunting dog, a mirror, and various high-paid consultants pointing it out. All their friends in the area have MSN, because its 'faster'. How I'm not sure, everyone is on dial-up since only a few places have DSL, but Qwest is rolling out DSL sometime later this year. Well they have been unhappy with their dial-up ECE speeds, and I don't blame them for that, but in honesty they were getting good speeds for where they were. But instead of asking me what I thought, and letting me do some research, they talked to their friends and decided to get MSN. Then they called Qwest and MSN and asked to get it. The shit-wits at tech support were absolutely no help b/c they had Mac OSX and fed them various lines of bullshit and lies that I am not going to repeat because its the kind of bullshit that makes me see red. They told them that they can't get MSN for Mac OSX, which is sort of true according to this link. And then they proceeded to have them go and do something that caused all their network preferences to disappear. This prompted my dad to finally call me. I was walking outside and stopped to talk, as the wind is just enough that walking makes it hard to hear. We proceed to go back and forth for 20 minutes (I made the mistake of telling my dad he made a mistake, which my father does not tolerate well) and I start to freeze my ass off. It turns out all that needed to be done was to plug the USB modem back into the USB port and let the system re-detect the modem and it automatically reconfigured everything back to what would allow them to connect. They did thank me, and we apologized for getting upset with each other, I'm having a shitacular week (its getting better now at least) because of DST. I'm under a lot or pressure and stress and I just snapped.

So for my mental health, I'm done. I live too far away from them and their issues are not ones I can fix from memory over a hundred miles away on the phone.

politics { If a Scooter is convicted in the woods will anyone indict a Cheney?

Seriously. I read the NYT article. Is Cheney next? He should be. Will Congress do anything that is not non-binding?

3.05.2007

book review { 'Armour of Contempt' by Dan Abnett

Author: Dan Abnett
Genre: Sci-fi/WH40k

Synopsis: The Sabbat Crusades continue and the Tanith First finds itself with Commissar Gaunt back on Gereon, a once loyal world to be liberated once again by the forces of Man. But the return is not as it seems and the Holy Inquisition, in a deal struck with a refugee desperate to return, threatens to leave the world no better off than the hell it has endured under the foul forces of the Archenemy of Mankind. Gaunt and the Tanith find themselves at odds with duty, loyalty and honor. Meanwhile two of there own, one fresh from boot and one back from indoctrination and sent through a hellish meat grinder where one is reminded of what it means to be a loyal guardsman and the other is forever changed.

Review: Dan Abnett is one of my favorite authors in the sci-fi genre, ever since I started reading the first book of the Tanith series. He is also the author of the Inquisitor Eisenhorn series, the Inquisitor Ravenor series, Double Eagle, and many, many more. My favorite books of his have been both Inquisitor series, a Warhammer book 'Fell Cargo' (about pirates) and my very favorite is 'Double Eagle' a tale of fighter jocks in the WH40k universe.

This book while good, is in my opinion so far the weakest of the Tanith series. All the characters (except for those who have died in earlier books) are there and many of the lead characters keep their 3D personalities (I always feel like I know them) and the world, including the combat, is visceral and realistic (as you can get in a sci-fi setting), but for some reason this book just didn't have the tension and plot twists the others did. His last two 'Traitor General' (where we are introduced to the world of Gereon) and 'His Last Command' were excellent (second only to 'Straight Silver' where the Tanith fought in the hellish trench war of Aexe Cardinal)

Overall: B (Dan is a great writer, but in comparison to his other works its good, but not as good as the others)

tech/work { T-minus 6 days, counting down

To Y2K...I mean DST. Or as I've now taken to calling it, 'Definite Suck Time'. Remember folks, get the latest patches for your Operating System (if you can) and if you use Java, make sure you are running v1.4+ and have either upgraded to 1.5.0_u11+ or have run the SUN 'tzupdater' tool.

blog { Knight of Nothing

Go check out Knight of Nothing. He's a friend and fellow Nerdpodian.

3.03.2007

Musings { Coffeehouse ramblings

I'm sitting killing time before Nerd Nacht starts. I'm sitting in the main area of the 'Bean Factory' (formerly J&S Bean Factory, until the owners divorced). The pleasing aroma of fresh roasted coffee wafts through the air from the roaster in the back. This place is one of my old haunts in the Twin Cities. Its still an important place to me. I meet my friend MikeD here before as many Nerd Nachts as our schedules allow. We have a cup, or two, or three of bean juice and catch up on old times. MikeD is one of my oldest and closest friends. I've known him almost all my life. He was a year behind me in school, so I knew of him for many, many years before we became friends in high school. We used to have plans. Graduation and backpacking across Europe. Getting an apartment together in the Cities and going to the same colleges. But life has a way of changing plans. Its only been recently we've had enough money to even buy tickets to Europe, but now neither of us are in a position to take a summer off and backpack across Europe. He never went to college and I dropped out. He's been slowly over the last 14 years moving his way closer and closer to the Cities, while I've been moving away. Despite that, we call each other often. We've always been like brothers. We've been there for each other. He was one of the first friends I introduced Nerdwife to, before she was Nerdwife and just Futurenerdwife. I've stood by him when other friends left him. He was there for me when I had cancer. He is smart, self-educated. Constantly teaching himself new things. His occupation is machinist and he is damn good at what he does. His hobbies are computers and reading.

I awoke this morning looking forward to the day. Tonight is Nerding, something I've done for many, many years. The Nerdpod (in reality Nerdpod 2) is a close cadre of friends, a clan, part of my tribe. I love Nerd Nacht. I get sad when I miss it.

But first a trip to my Grandparents. My grandma's computer is acting up. It turned out to not be major. Her Windows Defender expired and needed to uninstalled. Her McAffee AV expired and needed to be reloaded. She had problems downloading it and in an attempt to fix the errors that pop up, used WinXP's 'System Restore' feature to roll back to mid-Nov...not something to do. I was able to easily undo the restore, uninstalled Windows Defender, and started downloading the renewed McAffee AV Suite (she had already purchased the renewal, I would have moved her to AVG, as its much easier to use and its a commercial piece of bloatware, but c'est la vie). She has dial-up (Juno , but its cheap) and it would take 4 hours to download. She and Grandpa like when Nerdwife and I visit and they love us both very much. She used my visit as an excuse to make breaded pork-chops, a favorite of hers. She makes good pork chops.

As we eat and catch up on news with the family (I have not seen them since Xmas) I notice the age lines. They are both doing well for being in their late 70s, having been smokers all their life. I'm concerned, Grandma has had a melanoma on her face that the doctors have been treating for years. I notice the start of a new one near her nose. But she sees the doctor regularly, and if it was serious, she would say something. I wish they would stop smoking, it is the only downside of visiting them. I've been away from smoke and smokers for long enough now, that being around a single smoker can make me nauseous. My cloths now smell of the toxic stuff. I will have to air them out later and wash them.

From my Grandparents I went to kill time at the Nerd Store (aka The Source). I've been a card member since 1993, one of the few who have a card number less than 300. I soak in the nerd. It feels good. I am pleased to see families, and women. When I first started the full on decent into total Nerdom, there were few women in the hobby. Now there are many, and more people of all types. I see the faintest trace of someone I recognize out of the corner of my eye. I look closer...and sure enough it is someone I know. Or rather knew in a past life. This person was a project manager named Troy for my former employer's employer (I worked for an Outsourcer). He was always a pleasant, if not always easy to work with person. He was also someone to whom I would not figure a nerd. He is, a big one. He is there with his wife and 3 or 4 year old daughter. He is not only a nerd, but so is his wife and they were there buy something for his daughter. I smile. I don't approach him. He more than likely does not remember me, and I am not 100% positive his name is Troy. I go back to looking for a miniature for my 10th level Ranger 'Falin M'Or', whom I've played since joining the Nerdpod. I find a miniature that I will paint. Its not truly Falin, but its the closest I've found in all these years.

Falin is me. Or at least me if I was elven, adept with martial weapons, and could track like Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. I guess he is who I would choose to be if I were this fantasy world we create on every 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month. He has grown from being merely some stats on a piece of paper to a part of me. Much like my World of Warcraft rogue, Pernox, has become a part of me. This bonding with my characters has only happened with a few other characters, usually they are just characters.

Xen - my 13th level Cambian (retired, from Nerdpod 1)
James Ravenscliff - my 11th level Anti-Paladin (retired, from Nerdpod 1)
Anax - my 6th level Gnoll Fighter (RIP)
Xu - my 9th level Dwarven Fighter/Rogue (RIP)

I love the smell of coffee.

Time to get my nerd-on.

3.01.2007

Casual Friday { [Video] The Child



I love this animation. The world in letters.


On a side note. We received another 12"+ of snow. It warmed my heart today to see total strangers stopping and helping people either dig out of the snow or get their vehicles unstuck.

2.28.2007

Casual Day That Ends In Y { Because I can't wait for Friday

I love this video!

Musings { Technology and Work, part (355/113)+1

Because not all things end in tears and sadness.

Update. My work the other night has a happy ending to the story. I was able to get the system patched. While I was unable to upgrade the firmware of the HBA flashproms. I was able to time warp the patch sets 4 years forward (it was 2/02, I updated it to 6/2006).

I was able to leave it better than I found it. I installed OS disk mirroring, something it never had.

Tomorrow I patch it's siblings.

Response { Why I don't support Hillary

I don't think Hillary is sitting around grappling with her vote decision. I do think that the cartoon suffers from an artist's laziness. But of course political cartoons are all about caricature - Hillary = poll watcher, Bush = dumb/ignorant, Gore = boring, Obama = Jesus. I did some background reading and found her statements about her vote in Iraq. Basically it boils down to, the intelligence provided by the administration (which we now know to be cherry picked) indicated immediate action was necessary. The Iraq war resolution, because of alleged WMDs, did give Bush the authority to use military force but with the understanding that he was going to do it to uphold UN sanctions. And, during a time which the country (Congress included) turned to its president for honorable leadership, Bush showed his true colors as an a-hole (not waiting for the UN inspectors to finish) and basically did what he wanted. Hillary is now defending her vote pretty consistently. If anything, I think her resoluteness on this issue goes against the popular idea of her as a poll chaser. The decision to go to war is complicated so is the explanation, and I think that's what is tripping Hillary. Saying I'm sorry simply ignores that life is full of nuance and comes off as placating if not a bit pandering. I'd also like to point out one more quote from the NYT,

Though Mr. Obama is framing his candidacy to appeal to Democrats who have long opposed the war, until recently he was not among his party’s most outspoken voices against it. He campaigned strongly against the war in his bid for the Senate in 2004, but when he arrived in Washington he waited 11 months to deliver a major speech on Iraq.



Obama is fortunate because he wasn't around in the senate for the vote. He does appear pure, but if that is the criteria for support then I think one should support people like Dennis Kucinich who was brave enough to vote against the Iraq War Resolution. I am cynical enough to say beware of those whose true colors are yet to be revealed.

Some disclosure, I don't really like Hillary or Obama. I also will admit, again, in the general election I will vote for whomever the Democrats tart up for the general election. As of now, I don't really care about the primaries, though Kucinich may be liberal enough to get me motivated. Wait, check that, his thoughts on abortion and gay marriage are liberal enough to make me read more... will report later...

A content appropriate video...

Commerce/Tech { A Fitting End

Every CompUSA in Minnesota is closing.

Don't expect me to shed any tears. Your selection was terrible, your prices were outrageous, your coupon refunds were annoying, and your sales staff were assholes.

I was never treated like anything above excrement when I was there, and I decided I'd had enough a while back and never did any business there again. Given that I'm an IT professional and have an annual budget in the tens of thousands of dollars, your crappy company might have earned some of that scrip if you had bothered to treat me like a valued customer.

I wouldn't even shop at CompUSA in an emergency. There are a number of other computer parts suppliers, and they don't generally make my blood pressure rise like your employees did.

Good riddance.

2.27.2007

Politics { Why I don't support Hillary

This picture (from the City Pages) about sums it up:



I feel she will be more of the same old same old. While I would love to see a women President, I don't judge a candidate based on what race, orientation nor gender. She just has too much history, a wishy-washy fence leaning kind of bad that I dislike. Moderate? Sure, I guess, but a more right of center moderate.

Some argue Barack is inexperienced. Well, perhaps he is, but I would rather take a chance on someone like him, an unknown, then Hillary, a known.

Ok all you Hillary supporters, flame away. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I'm naive. Am I? Look at yourself. Look at what she's done. Think about 2004, the zoo that was and think to 2008. It will be a zoo (and insane...they predict over $2B, thats billion will be spent by the candidates running). After the last 7 years of Bush, the abortive 2000 election. The War. The environmental crisis. Its time for a change from same old same old. Its time to re-evaluate the office of the President (and Congress). Its time to start making changes. Break the status quo. We have to, or we're doomed as a society if we keep on this course.

Musings { Technology and Work, part (355/113)

I awoke, slowly, having not slept well again. Nerdwife was already up and showered and had gotten ready for work. I was not fully awake, trying to hold on to what little bliss of a comfortable and cozy bed remained, refusing to arise and face the day for a little longer. She kissed me goodbye, but it seemed like a dream.

I rolled over, shut off the alarm, and fell back into a fitful sleep for another hour. I was trying to sleep in because I knew tonight I would be in late, patching systems.

I finally got up and took a shower. Then descended into my still unpacked office (I put out my WH40K Battlefleet Gothic stuff this weekend and basked in the loving memory of painting the ships and the battles they fought). I was up late the night before switching VCS service groups to other nodes in the cluster so that I could patch the one that awaits me. I made the mistake of leaving my laptop open and logged into work with email open. The emails never end. Somewhere along the line, someone decided email was a real time messenger service and that important things could be conveyed, or worse that they would be read and accepted without discussion. Most people who use email do not understand that it is not 100%, even the USPS isn't 100%. Spelling and grammar have also declined, which is paradoxical since people are writing more. I'm not the best with letters or words, so when I notice, things have sunk to an all time low. I answered a few of the more urgent, to clarify mostly. The I logged off. Work would claim me soon enough. I fired up my PC at home, deciding to check on my WoW auctions. I'm saving for an epic mount, which costs ~560g. I'm level 51 now and need to start. But WoW is undergoing patching, I had forgotten that its Tuesday. Tuesdays are patch day. I instead switch to my Tau army on WH40K: Dark Crusade and progress to eliminate the Eldar, and make major inroads on the Orks and rebuff the Space Marines. But first a quick run to get cash from an ATM and a coffee and scone from Dunn Bros. As I wait in line, my mind wanders again to the Cities, and I miss the selection of coffeehouses that I used to frequent. I change the topic in my mind to something else. I dwell on the Cities too much still. It depresses me and keeps me from enjoying the now and making the best of the here. I think about Saturday. Saturday is nerding. I also need to stop by and visit my Grandparents. I received a frantic email from Grandma, here computer is doing things it shouldn't and not doing things it should. That's not good, but I miss them and I don't see them enough. When she found out when I'm coming, she said she is going to make breaded pork chops and mashed potatoes...how can I refuse? I'm not a lot of things, but I like to think I am a good grandson. Besides, no one else in the family can help, or rather she doesn't trust anyone else in the family to help. She knows I do things with computers.

The coffee and raspberry jam covered scone is delicious. I enter the world of Kronus to do battle.

The Eldar die quickly and are driven from the world. The Orks rise before me in a green tide and clash against my wall of Fire Warriors, who become awash in a sea of red. 5 to 1 kill rate, my Cadre literally kills thousands of them. The Orks are driven from the Bulwark, back to their home territory. I will finish them next turn, which will have to wait.

2:30pm comes too fast. I shutdown the game. Say goodbye to the cats, who both sit and watch me prepare to leave. They are funny like that. Always there to greet us when we get home and there to see us off when we leave.

I am unable to find a parking spot and I don't have change. So I park in a two-hour parking zone near work...I probably have a ticket. Parking has been tight since they eliminated another two parking lots at work.

I go to the hardware recycling center and pickup some components I need to craft a console patch so that I can work remotely on this system instead of sitting in the data center slowly going deaf. When did they start locking the door...

I forgot to lookup where the server was.

The server was moved since I last remember, not uncommon, I remember then that ACs had to go in where it used to be, it is now all the way across the data center and by itself. Damn. I bring a laptop over, the DC Ops Manager put various laptops on stands throughout the data center, they are great tools. I patch the laptop in to the server and head a few blocks away to my office. I remote desktop in and everything seems to work, console output is fine, but input is funny. Everything is changed to funny characters. Almost like I am typing in wing-dings.

I consult a co-worker. We get some long cables and do what you should not do, string cables over the raised floor to establish a patch connection. Much time is spent checking and re-checking and verifying the cables and connections, but to no avail. We figure the ASICs in the serial connector on the host are bad. This makes the job far more interesting, and much, much riskier. The machine is venerable. The likelihood of something going wrong when you touch it are high. Uptime is over 400 days. But the kernel level says the OS is running at a patch level off an old CD, I figure it to be Solaris 8, 02/02, but I'm too pre-occupied to look it up at the moment. It is part of a large, but dwindling cluster of systems built by the previous regime as I call them. The collection of cowboys and pseudo-admins from whom I, and the rest of the team inherited the environment. The stuff they built are land mines waiting to go off. And they frequently do, and then we have to pickup the pieces. In most cases this is actually a blessing in disguise as we can rebuild them better, and most importantly more supportable. But we pay, for everything we do, we pay. The political price is always high. The previous regime left us in a spot of 'most hated'. Not by all, we have allies and friends, but we have many enemies. Though the winds are changing and slowly we are coming to at least professional understandings. At my old job I learned the valuable ability to separate people from the work they do. In most cases you can dislike, hate the person at work, only to find away from work and the pressure and stress they are not at all bad people.

I digress. I un-encapsulated the OS disk, its not mirrored. Few of these ancient systems have mirrored OS disks. Without a console, I have to patch in multi-user mode, another 'don't try this at home' situations, but options are few. Patching from such an old kernel rev will mean it will take probably 8 hours on weary ultra-sparc II CPUs. They're tired, if you listen you can hear the wheezing of age in the system's fans. The groan of its power supply. The age of its machine spirit. I try to do what I can revive and resuscitate these old installs, but you can only bring them back from the dead so many times before you just must retire them.

So far the patching is going, but the moment of truth will be the reboot...hours from now.

2.24.2007

Politik { Wow, just wow



My first response - this is jaw droppingly disgusting. (Check out their ACLU 'commercials' also...) But I just had a realization. Is this their visceral response to The Daily Show/The Colbert Report? How will we ever come together? Or even co-exist?

Other thoughts... so does this mark a new acceleration in the increasing trend towards infotainment? This is being done by Fox News. Arguably those special 'news magazines' hours on all the 24 hour news channels are only a hair more legitimate. Assuming there will be an interview segment, will liberals be as sporting and as brave as a number of conservatives who have gone on TDS/CB? Thought it could be suggested that the conservatives who do choose to go on those shows are either ignorant, arrogant, or simply want the media attention. Or at least to go on Fox News the next day and bitch about it.

2.23.2007

Priorities { Budget

Energy dependence is probably the single greatest threat to our ongoing security as a nation and as an economy. Reducing dependence on foreign oil, as well as fossil fuels generally, is probably the single most needed development to secure any future for America. The only reason the world pays any major attention to Southwest Asia and the 12th century cultures living there is oil. If Africa had as much oil as Saudi Arabia, you can bet American soldiers would be knee-deep in the Sahara on some foolhardy empire-building exercise. When things get tough, expect America to consider Canada and Venezuela as potential targets.

Proposed Department of Energy R&D budget for FY2007: $2.7 billion 1

Proposed defense budget for FY2007, including the requested money for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through FY2008, but not counting the interest on the debt that defense spending has been responsible for: $745 billion 2

It is clear by these choices that we have little interest in actually fixing our problems. America's major interest seems to be keeping the oil industry and defense contractors flush with cash while Rome burns.

Cut the military budget by $100 billion. Today. Put half that money into renewable energy research, and the other half into subsidies for communities to work on ways of conserving more and becoming more efficient. We will be both better for it generally and we will be more safe. Our security theater and neocon hawk methods are only speeding the demise of an America that can be salvaged. The promise of easy motoring, a car in every garage and a suburban house with a white picket fence for all is over.

In short, America, put your money where your mouth is and invest in things that give us a future, instead of just incompetently trying to prolong the inevitable.

2.22.2007

Casual Friday { Life and Death of a Pumpkin



Creepy and well done.

Casual Thursday { Moonwalking bird



Does this mean moonwalking is a prevalent meme in nature?

Work { Java DST upgrade script

The change in Daylight Savings Time caused by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 has resulted in nightmare conditions for some in Information Technology as almost every operating system required a patch of some kind in order to correctly adjust for the new DST rules. Many apps (most noteably Exchange) also require patching. Those that cannot be patched have to be upgraded or work around have to be put into place. Java is one of those Apps. More information regarding Java can be found at http://www.sun.com/dst. To make my life a little easier I wrote the script below to aid my efforts to patch/upgrade the system JRE and the Symantec/Veritas JREs on Solaris systems. Its not as clean as I would like and there are many improvements I would do as well as streamline some of the logic.

#!/bin/ksh

# java_dst.ksh ###
# author: Me
#version: 1.1
#purpose: to automatically find/update JAVA JREs on Solaris hosts
# and catalog completed and unsupported JRE instances.
###

###
# changelog:
# 20070215 me: streamlined script/debugged
# added find/update for /usr/openv/java
# 20070214 me: script debugging
# 20070211 me: script creation
#
###
# peer review:
# 20070214 co-worker1
# 20070215 co-worker2
#
###


###
# PATHS
###
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
export PATH

###
# global variables
###
# base directory where script runs
case $0 in
"./java_dst.ksh") BASE=$(pwd) ;;
*) echo "WARNING! This script needs to be executed from the directory in which it resides, otherwise the script will not work."
exit 1 ;;
esac
export BASE

TZUPDATE=${BASE}/tzupdater2006p/tzupdater.jar
JRE15SRC=${BASE}/jre1.5.0_11
JRE15=jre1.5.0_11
SYSJRE=/usr/java

if [ -x ${SYSJRE}/bin/java ]; then
PATH=${SYSJRE}/bin:${PATH}
export PATH
else
echo "WARNING! No system JRE defined as ${SYSJRE}! Please investigate."
ls -ltard ${SYSJRE}
exit 1
fi
MASTERDIR=${BASE}/log
ISSUEHOSTSLOG=${MASTERDIR}/issue_hosts.log
UPDATEDHOSTLOG=${MASTERDIR}/updated_host_list.log
export BASE TZUPDATE JRE15SRC SYSJRE JRE15 MASTERCATALOG ISSUEHOSTSLOG UPDATEDHOSTLOG

###
# intro
###
echo "This script will scan the target host for installed JREs in /usr and /opt."
echo "This script will also update any JREs found with the '-u' option."
echo " "



###
# functions() {}
###

find_jre() {
# find installed JREs on system and catalog them

JRECATALOG=/var/tmp/$(uname -n)-jre_catalog.out
JREVEROUT=/var/tmp/$(uname -n)-jre_versions.out

OPTS=$1
# better search string, will not cross mount points or non-local file systems,
# will not also exec the version option on the java installs found, will
# elmininate sparcv9 (64-bit) entries as they are duplicitous
echo "Searching for installed JREs in /usr and /opt..."

find /usr /opt -local -xdev -type f -perm -o+x -name java -print -o -name sparcv9 -prune >${JRECATALOG}


# catalog the version of the JREs found, for documentation purposes
echo "Cataloging installed JRE locations and version..."
echo "Versions will be saved in: ${JREVEROUT}"
echo "Installed JREs found will be saved in: ${JRECATALOG}"

# initialize version output log
echo "">${JREVEROUT}

for x in $(cat ${JRECATALOG})
do
(
echo "${x}"
${x} -version 2>&1
) >>${JREVEROUT}
done
echo "done."

# update the master catalog with JREs installed on system for future
# reference
if [ "${OPTS}" = "B" ]; then
echo "Copying ${JREVEROUT} to ${MASTERDIR}..."
cp ${JREVEROUT} ${MASTERDIR}/
echo "done."

else
echo "Note: ${JREVEROUT} will not be copied to ${MASTERDIR} unless the '-u' option is specified."
fi
}

install_jre() {
# install JRE 1.5.0_11 on target host, re-link /usr/java to new JRE.
# JRE installed will be /usr/jre1.5.0_11

tar cf - ${JRE15} | (cd /usr ; tar xvf - )
mv ${SYSJRE} ${SYSJRE}.old
ln -s /usr/${JRE15} ${SYSJRE}
${SYSJRE}/bin/java -version
echo " "
echo "If version (Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_11-b03)) appears, then JRE 1.5.0_11 was successfully installed as the system JRE."

updated_hosts_log A

}

updated_hosts_log() {
# update the ${MASTERDIR} logs
case $1 in
A) # updated
(
echo "###"
echo "# $(uname -n) system JRE updated"
echo "# $(date)"
echo "###"
${SYSJRE}/bin/java -version
)>>$UPDATEDHOSTLOG
;;
B) # issue
(
echo "###"
echo "# $(uname -n) Symantec JRE non-updatable $2"
echo "###"
)>>${ISSUEHOSTSLOG}
esac
}


update_system_jre() {
# update the JRE using tzupdater or unbundle the new JRE if needed

echo "Checking installed system JRE (${SYSJRE})..."
SYSJREVER=$(${SYSJRE}/bin/java -version 2>&1 | grep "^java" | cut -d\" -f2)

case ${SYSJREVER} in
1.4*|1.5*) echo "updateable JRE version found ${SYSJREVER}, updating..." ;${SYSJRE}/bin/java -jar ${TZUPDATE} -u ;echo "done."; updated_hosts_log A;;
*) echo "non-updateable JRE version found ${SYSJREVER}, installing ${JRE15}...";install_jre ; echo "done.";;
esac
}


update_symantec_jre() {
# update Veritas/Symantec Product JREs, will only work with JRE1.4 or greater
# only Veritas/Symantec Products v4.0 or greater are supported
# any version less than 4.0 found will not be able to be updated
echo "Checking for and updating the following packages: VRTSjre, VRTSjre15, VRTSob..."

VRTSJRE14="/opt/VRTSjre/jre1.4/bin/java"
VRTSJRE15="/opt/VRTSjre/jre1.5/bin/java"
VRTSJREOB="/opt/VRTSob/jre/bin/java"
NBUJRE="/usr/openv/java/jre/bin/java"
for x in $(echo "${NBUJRE} ${VRTSJRE14} ${VRTSJRE15} ${VRTSJREOB}")
do
SYMJREVER=$( ${x} -version 2>&1 | grep "^java" | cut -d\" -f2 )
echo ${x}
case ${SYMJREVER} in
1.4*|1.5*) ${x} -jar ${TZUPDATE} -u ; echo "Updated ${x}."
;;
"") echo "\c: not installed. ";;
*) echo "Non-updateable JRE found: ${x}"
echo "See http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/286461.htm for instructions and impact to this host."
echo "Per Symantec, JRE updates are cosmetic and only affect the GUI."
updated_hosts_log B ${x}
;;
esac
done
}

usage() {
echo " "
echo "ILLEGAL OPTION"
echo "usage: ./java_dst.ksh [-u]"
echo " -u: find/update JREs"
echo "no opts: find JREs and save output to /var/tmp"
}

###
# main()
###

if [ "$*" = "" ]; then
find_jre
else
while [ "$*" != "" ]; do
case $1 in
-u) find_jre B;update_system_jre;update_symantec_jre; shift;;
*) usage; exit 1;;
esac
done
fi

Life { Me not good with English this wek

I don't know if its the lunar alignment or fullness or that I may be getting arthritic but it seems like I can't makes me my letters good this week.

Top 5 problems:

1) 'know' when I mean 'no'
2) 'their' when I mean 'there'
3) 'windws' when I meant 'winds'
4) missing the lttr 'e'
5) letter 'd' is playa-hating me

2.19.2007

Politics { Al Franken stumps in Rochester



Al Franken stopped in Rochester. Al is running for U.S. Senate, the seat currently held by Norm Coleman. I was initially going to miss it, but decided to go. I was not sure if I was going to throw my support behind him, since its still 21 months until the election. But I found the rally to be good. There were a lot of people there, a lot more than I thought there would be, but I need to change my perspective. Rochester is no longer the conservative bulwark of Minnesota that has moved to the north Metro.



He was very personable I felt and worked the crowd. He liked to mingle and meet with people.


(sorry the quality is poor, all I had on me was my cell phone)

The theme of his stump speech was 'Leadership'. Something I agree with, and it was mainly that we need new leadership, that our currently leadership has failed (and made things worse).

His main points were:

*Leadership; we need stronger leadership, especially in the Senate
*Universal Healthcare; access for all, the Republicans said it was easy, why didn't they do it?
*Support of education (especially higher education); increasing support in programs that allow more people to go to college (i.e. Pell Grant)
*War contract oversight; Coleman is on the permanent committee overseeing war contracts to investigate fleecing, corruption, mis-use, etc. and he is doing a poor job at it
*Getting rid of the Bush tax cuts for the very rich
*Support of the troops, and the partitioning of Iraq; I wish I could remember the name of the plan, but my memory fails me
*Rebuilding our credibility and place with the rest of the world; after it was squandered post-9/11
*No privatization of Social Security; keep private firms out of it
*Stop the gutting and attacking of labor by the government; help and support labor
*Stop the gutting/elimination of Veteran's benefits (and research to help them with such things as injuries such as Traumatic Brain Injury)

When his time was up, he decided to have a question and answer session, and we the audience, while not being pre-screened (all were welcome), did not really have any tough questions for him (I'm not sure why, usually Minnesotans, especially liberals always drop the tough questions, and don't hesitate to do so). The best question that was asked to Franken was really more of a request, and that was to keep "Coleman's feet to the fire."

He told some anecdotes about his life in Minnesota growing up and that of his wife's and how her family, due to many hardships, still were able to overcome, thanks to support structures like Social Security survivor's benefits. I've heard these before in his books, but it was nice to see and meet his wife in person and put a face to the words.

Overall I enjoyed the rally, I enjoyed seeing fellow liberals turn out. I enjoyed meeting and seeing Al in person (after years of just seeing him on the TV and hearing him on Air America).

He was passionate and I feel sincere.

Politics { Olberman and Bush SotU

2.18.2007

WoW { Peaceful day fishing



Fishing near Nighthaven, Moonglade-Kalimdor-Azeroth

What I caught:

Raw Redgill x13
Raw Nightfin Snapper x1
Raw Mithril Head Trout x2
Greater Mana Potion

Fishing lvl: 228 (I finished the really excellent Nat Pagle artisan fishing quest, where you have to catch 4 rare fish from all over Azeroth)
Fishing Pole: Nat Pagle's Extreme Angler FC-5000
Cooking lvl: 289 (been using fishing with cooking to level both)

The other day when I was here for the Lunar Festival, I had to fight this (as part of a larger group):



Omen

(Yes Horde and Alliance were working together to defeat him)

The Lunar Festival is based off the celebration of the Chinese New Year. A time of celebration of things to come, remembrance of those who came before and cause to put aside difference and party. I did 20 of the Ancestor quests, which take you all over Azeroth, and each one gives you a Coin of Ancestry, which are used later in Nighthaven for gifts such as clothing, fireworks, dumplings, etc. They also give you tidbits of advice (similar to fortune cookies) and send you notes in the mail where you get either Lucky Rocket Cluster (+250 health), or Elder Moonstones (creates a circle of lesser moonlight for 3 minutes). I enjoyed myself. It took me back to places I haven't been to in a while and pushed into to places my level (at the time 49) usually can't take you (like Silithus).

Someday, probably when I hit level 60, I will post a blog of my travels in Azeroth.

2.16.2007

Musings { There's a writer inside me somewhere

I just need to find him. I started this blog a few years ago to partially capture my random ramblings that friends said should be shared with the world and as an effort to help me write better. I've also been keeping a personal journal since November 2004.

I'm still not a writer, let a lone a good writer. Part of it is that I don't have a focus or a muse. I tried non-fiction political stuff with the blog, but that is more just venting of my internal anger. I've written some stuff that others have called 'epic poems', mainly around the start of the un-life of my WoW character. I can write poetry (I used to have a whole collection when I was younger, I bound them together and gave them to Nerdwife when I was woo-ing her), but I've forgotten them and are lost to time (unless Nerdwife can find them in storage somewhere, she has all the originals and onlys :). I like poetry, writing it more than reading it. But my poetry is just more like this:


hook_into_stream_of_consciousness()
insert_poem_header()
capture random thoughts()
export(random(media))
stop_capture()
unhook_from_stream_of_consciousness()
publish()
walk_away()



Its never been called good. I don't write it for praise though, I often write it for myself or for friends.

I thought about making movies, but I watch (and was inspired by) Northern Misfit, but with my current spot in life, I don't have the energy (or the money) to make films. Critique them...hell yes (and post the reviews here if I feel like it). Make them, no.

I'm starting to read more, and to read outside of my preferred areas (political non-fiction, sci-fi, fantasy) and have delved deeper into philosophy, general fiction, and poetry. I've also revisited the greats like Mark Twain. I can appreciate the excellent writing, but I can only recreate what others have done before. Not my own creations.

I know writing is just do it. And do it again. And again. And again. Like with almost anything, practice makes perfect.

What gives me heart is, even though I do not know if I have a novel in me or will ever be a good writer, some truly bad writers (both technically and plot-wise) have published.

Casual Friday { "We are teaching the Machine"

"The Machine is us."

I've seen this video popping up on numerous blogs and in numerous places. I think its beautiful. The Internet is one of the wonders of the world. It links us in way never before possible. The message at the end is also great, "we will need to rethink a few things...copyright, authorship, identity, ethics, aesthetics, rhetorics, governance, privacy, commerce, love, family, ourselves."




(PS: First seen on Northern Misfit's blog, then on Wonderland)

2.14.2007

Tech { Computer...

Voice recognition like you see in Star Trek still has a looooong way to go...



I laughed until I cried. As a programmer, I can feel their pain. And I thought emacs was difficult to use.

It was like watching a train wreck, I couldn't look away.

2.11.2007

Boycott { Mars Corporation and NFL

Makers of Snickers brand tooth decay accelerate among others. During the super-bowl they aired an ad that promoted violence against gays and lesbians and directed you to their website to vote and it also showed NFL player reactions to the ads. These ads were endorsed by the NFL and carried their logo. This was not accidental inconsideration, these ads were designed on purpose. The Mars family are major contributors to the Republican party.

I haven't really eaten much candy since I entered my 30s, mainly because my tolerance for things sickly sweet is diminishing rapidly, so I already am not giving them any money. But their corporation makes many, many things, so I will be checking the labels carefully from now on.

Words { Before there were 'Freedom Fries'

There was 'Liberty Cabbage' (aka sauerkraut).

'Liberty Cabbage' euphemism appeared during World War I when anti-German sentiment in this country reached a peak and people did not really like the Kaiser. While very similar to the idiocy that gripped this country in 2003 at the start of the Iraq War with the whole 'Freedom Fries' b.s., the main difference being, however, we were actually at war with Germany (which I realize still does not make it any more correct), whereas we were not at war with France in 2003.

2.01.2007

Neologism { equivalation

equivalation

To consider competing or opposite positions on an issue to be equivalent, despite a lack of evidence to support one of the sides.

as Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy put it:


Treating a dubious position as arguably equivalent to a legitimate one.

Dignifying questionable claims and disreputable agendas provides sensational fodder for an increasingly entertainment-focused news media. It also brings those claims and agendas within striking distance of acceptability.
This concept is quite popular on television and radio noise factories. For great examples, see Global Climate Change deniers and Intelligent Design/Creationism proponents as they are shown in mass media. Essentially everyone who is informed, educated, and qualified on the subjects is in large agreement, yet you'd think theories of Global Warming and Evolution/Natural Selection were in crisis.

Science is not cultural relativism. The mass media is giving credibility to nonsense to keep the verbal diarrhœa flowing so they can sell toothpaste ads. Many calls to 'teach the controversy' are people who cannot emotionally accept the conclusions we make given the evidence, and so they push for a false equivalence of their unsupported hypotheses as if any criticism warrants parity. Most often this is an appeal to popularity, where the uninformed believe their gut to be on equal ground with evidence.

Books { Potter's end

Book Seven is due out July 21, 2007, a week after the 5th feature film debuts in the States, quelling the rumors of 'seven being the most magical of numbers' and having the book come out 7-7-7, a week before instead.

I'll have to pick up the Americanized version in July, as my preferred British Special Edition Hardcover won't likely be out until the end of this year, and it is not like I'm going to wait to read the ending. Just gives me an excuse to revisit the last book later in the year when my Brit text version arrives.

In any case, the final book will be a bittersweet thing when I finish it. Rowling has indicated that "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is the final book in the series, although she has left herself open to more charity books like "Quidditch Through the Ages" and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". C'mon Encyclopedia of Wizardry and Hogwarts: A History! I'd love to see a Harry Potter version of Tolkein's Silmarillion, if a bit lower key.

Happy Imbolc.

UPDATE: Looks like the Book Seven British Special Edition Hardcover is due out at the same time ! No more waiting months! I preordered it but odds are I won't get it for a few days after the 21st, so I'll have to walk around with my fingers in my ears for a week or so.

In Memoriam { Molly Ivins

Molly Ivins has died.

1944-08-30 to 2007-01-31

Her voice will be missed.

1.25.2007

Video { Colbert Round-up

Colbert interviews Richard Dawkins:


Colbert on the O'Reilly factor:

1.17.2007

Priorities { I alternate between sickness and sadness

What 1.2 Trillion Can Buy

Look at all the good we could be doing. Look at how little it takes to change lives. Now consider how we're just pissing away this potential to be a force for good.

Politics { Barack Obama announce plans to run for President

This was a hope of mine come true.

Dennis Kuicinich has also announced.

The Democrats would be insane not to back Obama. They need to get off this Clinton kick.

1.16.2007

WoW { Impressions of 'The Burning Crusade' expansion pack


Queue position 559, calculating remaining time...

*Update, finally got in, and after a bit of searching found the portal to Silvermoon City from the Undercity...they gave me a welcome

*Update 2, mass exodus of Alliance to Horde for Blood Elves, might as well now call this game Elfcraft. At least on my server. 80% of them are Paladins too.

Musings/Numbers { Zero(0)

Zero.

One of the most absolute of all numbers.

It was not the first number created by humans (it took Persian mathematicians).

It is the most powerful of all numbers.

It is neither positive, or negative.

Zero divided by any number equals zero. (0/x)=0

Any number divided by zero does not exist. (X/0)=??? [does not compute]

Any number, including infinity, multiplied by zero, equals zero. (X*0)=0.

It adds nor subtracts anything to any number in which is put against. (X+0)=X, (Y-0)=Y

But, if you subtract a number from zero, or add for that matter, it changes. (0+X)=X, (0-Y)=-Y

It is nothing, but still something.

0C is the freezing point of water, while 0F is well below the freezing point.

At 0K all motion ceases. Absolute Zero is the terminus of existence.

0 is not arbitrary, yet an infinite number of zeros exist between it and any given number. Infinity is compressed between the zero of any number, except the single zero 0 that is the absolute.

1.12.2007

Thoughtcrime { Never ending war, never ending enemies, Orwellian state

I started seeing more and more of this popping up since Wednesday, the idea the Bush is advocating a war (or at least armed conflict with Iran).

here which links to here. (and here and here)

In the past I would have considered this merely posturing for Iran's sake to say we are serious about their nuclear ambitions, but now I am not so sure.

I use this to illustrate the increasing parallels with Orwell's 1984. Its becoming less a work of fiction and almost a work of history and history in the making.

We are not at war with Iraq. We are at war with Iran. We have always been at war with Iran.

"We've always been at war with Eastasia." - 1984

How soon till we start having 'Hate Week'?

How soon until they come for me? I'm a liberal, I've committed thoughtcrimes.

We already have groups taking advantage of the climate created by this Administration in America and abroad to advance their own agendas (in some cases they are even supported by Bush). We have those who used to be marginalized and written off as extremists now garnering more attention than they ever should and taking advantage of the intellectual and informational monopolies to spout forth hateful rhetoric (again see my previous post about hateful nut-jobs). I feel my place in this society eroding. Not just economically, but politically and intellectually.

The turn of events last November had given me some hope. But listening to the fence jumping, and the rhetoric coming from Capitol Hill this last week leaves me with less a feeling of actual change (and choice) but more an illusion of change/choice. The parrots and puppets are still there. Their apparent pandering is not action. Bush does not, as Commander-in-Chief have to listen to them. They don't have the stones to cut the budget. They won't impeach or make any kind of binding punishment. The House's attempt at enacting domestic social change (minimum wage increase, Medicare negotiations, ethics reform, stem cell research) are very good ideas, but this is more show. They will be hard to get through the Senate, and Bush has already said he will veto (stem cell research, Medicare negotiations).

One of the principle themes of the Matrix movies was the illusion of free will and choice. I enjoy it as fiction, I do not in my society.

What can be done? At this point I don't know. 2008 is close, but none of the people who have announced Presidential aspirations (either side) give me any hope, with the exception of Barack Obama, I would get behind him. Coleman is on the hot-seat. Pawlenty has done an about face on a lot of stances lately since November. This gives me a little hope that Minnesota will once again become solidly blue.

But, politicians are politicians. I seriously doubt this Congress will take Bush and his Administration up on investigation or charges of any kind anymore than the last one did (they make talk about it, but talk is not action). We'll see. I hope I am wrong.


in memoriam { Robert Anton Wilson

Hail Eris!

One of the funniest, smartest, most subversive minds of the last century died yesterday.

Robert Anton Wilson
1932-01-18 to 2007-01-11

Robert Anton and Arlen Riley Wilson webpages
Robert Anton Wilson blog
Robert Anton Wilson's books

fnord

Casual Friday { Muggles, Struggles, and Fuggles

Harry Potter amd the Order of the Phoenix trailer. I a eagerly await this movie: