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The new year

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:11:00 -0500

I figured that it is high time for a blog post, seeing how the year recently ended. So, enjoy it while it lasts.Let's see what I accomplished in 2006 (in semi-chronological order): yet another wonderful year of theamigan.net being in operation, building fez, getting a nice shiny new DAP (and subsequently becoming a user of rockbox for it), "composing" the Epic Battle Song, getting out of my classic rock slump, becoming a digital photography advocate (you thought it'd never happen...), actually getting a cellular telephone, turning into a Nutella addict, turning into a last.fm addict, writing MSPT, consuming heinous amounts of MDX during the summer, writing very little code over said summer, dancing like a maniac on camera over said summer, relenting and playing starcraft over said summer, watching every single episode of That 70's Show, doing the same for Futurama, proving that I am the messiah, getting a job bussing (and becoming "the best bus boy we ever had"), operating a motor vehicle, eating a shitload of falafel, watching an Italian film without subtitles, beginning work on a movie, meeting the most wonderful girl on the face of the planet, getting yet another cellular telephone, and ending the year watching Seinfeld season 4.What a wonderful year it was. Even if a lot of bad shit happened. The end.Dan out....

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 17:40:59 -0500

The Dems now control the House, and we're waiting on the Senate (damn you Virginia!).Now, I'm not saying the Democrats are all little angels (indeed, one of my senators, Lincoln Chafee, was quite possibly one of the better politicians in Congress, and he was a Republican. More on this later.), but having a GOP House and Senate has proved to be nothing but disastrous. Obviously, Bush is quite possibly up shit creek without a paddle without a House and Senate backing his every move. Also, Rumsfeld's resignation came as welcome news to many, including myself (though I have a feeling his replacement will prove himself just as inept).In Rhode Island, the Senate race was shocking to some, myself not included. Around these parts, a mention of Linc Chafee usually invokes a sense of political integrity, and I for one am sad to see him go. He and Jack Reed made a good team when it came to representing our tiny state. His successor, Sheldon Whitehouse, doesn't really give me a warm fuzzy feeling; I have a feeling he will, as the ads say, "do nothing".As for the RI house race, the representative for district 2 turned out to be ol' Jim Langevin again, something I am not overly pleased about. Rod Driver seemed to be the better man in this race, but he (expectedly) only got 27% of the vote, being an independent.As for the rest of the local politics, Carcieri is staying for another term as our dumbass governor. Not that Chhhhharrrrrrliieeeeee Fogarty would have been much better, but I think it's time for a change of scenery up in the state house. Also, question 1 was struck down, so no casino for us. And question 2 was approved (yay!) so now parolees and probationers can vote. And that Haldeman guy that came to talk to my class, who proved himself to be an idiot, didn't win.So that's it. Hopefully these changes will help to fix some of the crap that's accumulated over the years....

MSPT and stuff

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:40:52 -0400

I haven't posted here in a long time. So I will attempt to fill the world in on my wonderful, fun-filled life and what has been going on in it.First and foremost, as many of you know, I have started a service called MSPT, which is a MySpace Profile Tracker. Read the page if you want general info.Basically, it's written in PHP and uses MySQL. I might release it under the BSD license if someone asks for it. Who knows.Currently, it has 106 users and growing (about 1 or 2 users per hour or so.) It really probably isn't the best of trackers, but I think they way it works is quite novel, and I wrote it so it must be good. People seem to like it. I plan on adding new features as they are asked for.Secondly, I did indeed get my X5, and I love it. It has also gotten me many glances and "that's weird"s from people I know, as well as people I don't know. I think it's much cooler than an iPod, at any rate.Thirdly, I recently helped Matt reinstall and get gorman (animenuke download server) up and running. I tried to secure this system as much as I could, though I have reason to believe that the most recent attacker got in through either Matt's rather poorly-written PHP code, the fact that he was using a horrendously outdated version of PHP, or a combination of both.Lastly, I have lots of final projects. This is going to be fun. But there's only less than 20 days of hell left! Yay!Dan out. Have fun....

iAudio x5

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 13:32:13 -0400

Ok, so my birf-day is coming up at the end of the month, and I've decided that it's time to replace my ailing 256MB Memorex metro flash MP3 player. Not being one to jump on the iPod bandwagon (because the iPod is clearly inferior to almost any other HDD-based player out there), I looked around a bit and have settled on the Cowon iAudio X5L 30GB player, which is currently going for $290 on NewEgg.Of course, I do have good reason to have settled on this. Matt has the 20GB X5L and he loves it (he let me try it out for a day and I have reached the same conclusion). A couple members of my family have the iPod, and after using both, I can safely say that the iPod sucks dehydrated goat balls.For me, the feature that had the most appeal at first (and quite frankly, is somewhat of a requirement for me) was the ability to play not only MP3s, but also Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files. I use Ogg heavily, and recently have taken to ripping all CDs to FLAC, so this is very nice. Also, the X5 has much much better sound quality than the iPod, which seems to very noticibly distort even before one reaches the halfway mark on the volume scale. (if you're using something like the Griffin iTrip, this distortion is even more noticible).Some say they dislike the X5's interface. I find this to be the exact opposite. One thing I love about my Memorex is that fact that it uses a joystick. This is of immediate benefit to me because if you know how everything is laid out, you can navigate without looking at the screen (which is very useful when changing tracks when listening during class =]). This is near-impossible with the clickwheel of the iPod. Also, people say they dislike the fact that the X5 doesn't use an ID3 database. I find this to be a very good thing, because you have to ability to lay out your music exactly how you like it. For me, I have a very organised collection, with all files having uniform naming conventions (Artist - Album - T# Title.ext), so writing a script to parse these names and generate a directory structure was trivial (I already did it in perl, and I don't even own the bloody device yet!). The script will generate a tree that looks like {First letter of artist}/{Artist}/{Album}/{Tr#} {title}.{ext}. If you want it, let me know.Not to mention that the X5 requires nothing of the host computer except USB mass storage (which on FreeBSD is handled by umass(4)) and FAT32 support, while the iPod and friends need some proprietary bullshit to generate the directory structure and ID3 databases (ever tried using gtkpod if you use Unix? Now there's an exercise in masochism). I have already tried Matt's X5 under FreeBSD and it works flawlessly.Also good to note is that the X5 has an FM radio, while the iPod does not; a voice recorder, while the iPod does not; the ability to record an external source to disk using the line-in port, while the iPod does not; and absolutely fucking amazing battery life (the X5L, which has an advertised battery life of 35 hours, has been reported to survive 2 weeks without charging under normal use). I will admit that the X5 is somewhat lacking in the video and photo department (though the USB OTG feature is really cool if you're going on a trip and need to copy stuff), I am primarily purchasing an audio player....if I want to watch videos I'll use a television (and I can always use my Tungsten if I need to).The X5 also sports cool features like a dynamic playlist, a nifty text file viewer, the ability to display lyrics (though it needs a windows application, LDB editor, but I'm sure it works fine under qemu if I really want it), and the ability to set an image as the background for the Now Playing screen. I'll admit, the iPod's album cover thing is cool, but this is nothing compared to all the other areas that the X5 just blows it away. And if I want to be trendy, I'll steal procure a pair of iPod ear buds (which sound like complete and utter shit anyway) to use with this player. (I was looking at the Shure E2c in-ear buds, which have very good quality and isolation, but I'm probably going to get something else, since 1) they are $60, 2) they are a tad difficult to put in properly [a problem for me, where I need to take them out and put them at will if I'm at school], and 3) completely isolate you from the world around you [this can be a good thing, but for me it is very bad because I will have no idea if a teacher is trying to talk to me :)]).So there you have it. I'm bored as hell and have a week of this ahead of me.Dan out....

SKMUN

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 20:33:45 -0400

Today was the SKMUN conference...it was pretty good. I was the delegate for Uruguay on the UNSC. The topic was the current drug trade problems and conflicts between Colombia and Venezuela. Fun stuff.I sponsored one resolution along with a few of my friends, but it never made it to debate since we ran out of time. Oh well. At the end of the day, we passed no resolutions, out of the 3 debated (two of which were voted on; the other was tabled before it made it to vote) and the 5 drafted total. It was quite the fun waste of time.Also of note was the guest speaker for the UNSC, whose name eludes me at the moment. However, his credentials were fairly interesting, having worked with these issues back in the 70s and now being employed by the state of Rhode Island under some drug control agency (I think).But anyway, he told of his various trips to Colombian villages and how the crop spraying for coca (which US tax dollars pay for, yippee) has destroyed lives and villages. He told of one incident he witnessed first-hand where sprayers came in to spray the garden of this school (keep in mind, this isn't your average backyard vegetable garden; this garden basically fed the children who went to the school) and basically obliterated it. Another thing he mentioned is that the herbicide tends to drift with the wind (the planes usually fly at high altitude to avoid being shot down, so the herbicide just forms a cloud and slowly rains down on everything, including legitimate crops, houses, farm animals, and other stuff, eventually also making its way into the water supply and contaminating it [the labelling of the herbicide says clearly not to use in areas where water supply contamination is possible]).You see, these legitimate crops are what feed these people. There are no roads; they can't drive down to the local Shaw's and pick up groceries. What the sprayers usually do is come in with planes to photograph crops, look to see what they think is coca, and come back 6 months later and spray regardless of what is growing in that same spot. Eventually, after a few sprayings, the land just becomes completely sterilised, and the local residents move up to the city. However, being a rather poor city, they can't find jobs, and then move further north to--guess where?--the US! And here we are trying to shut them out with immigration laws. (Ooh! A law designed to deport the majority of our nation's workforce! What a great idea!) It's just a vicious cycle of bullshit policy created by clueless politicians (and before you dumbasses start calling me a left-wing sympathiser, might I remind you which president Plan Colombia was instituted under? That's right, Clinton. And guess which president is still giving $907mn in military aid to Colombia and $727mn to the Andean counter-drug initiative? That's right, Bush!)So there's my rant for today. Take it or leave it.Dan out....

Urination? Gum in your hair?

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 22:41:45 -0400

So today was an interesting day. First, during study, Brian and I witnessed someone urinate on the cafeteria floor. As I recall, we heard the distinct sound of water hitting floor tile and looked over to see the person in question putting his phallus away. He subsequently moved to the next booth over with the acquaintance he was sitting with. As I recalled in an AIM conversation with Matt:(18:02:04) Dan: after it happened I just was staring at Brian in disbelief going(18:02:29) Dan: "we're in high school. we are all over the age of three. someone a grade higher than us just urinated on the floor."(18:03:00) Matt: hahaThen, a certain asshole decided to put gum in my hair during band today, which I didn't notice until I got home and was leisurely running my fingers through my hair. I know exactly who it was. If you also know who it is (just ask me...I would post his its name here but that's just asking for a lawsuit of sorts), I urge you to harass him as much as possible. You know, with usual Dan harassment, such as "I hope you get an STD of the worst kind; one that involves pus leaking from the short organ you call a phallus for the rest of your life," or "The gum thing was quite funny, but it'll be my turn to laugh when you're the one manning the frialator at one of the fine local restaurants specialising in reconstituted animal patty on a bun."That is all. Dan out....

Random Shite

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 09:04:00 -0500

So, here I am, sitting in study with nothing to do. My friend Brian is sitting next to me going on World of Warcraft forums and google. We are bored as fuck. There is absolutely *nothing* to do without using putty. However, since I just got my account re-enabled, I do not want to chance it by trying to ssh to styx. Hence, I am stuck using this stupid web application which I wrote many moons ago.First, let us go over some recent news items, such as the man who went on a rampage in Illinois, eventually severing his own phallus and hurling it at police along with a bunch of knives.So I have to go. Bye....

Jack Reed and stuff

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 14:39:47 -0500

So, today Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) came in to talk to some of the Global Studies classes. It was largely a question-and-answer session, and he explained many issues quite well, as well as giving his take on recent happenings.I asked him what he thought of the recent Guantanamo Bay prisoner name list release, and he said that it can't harm the US; if anything, it would help us as it allows us to be a little more transparent, which is important when you're holding lots of people for years at a time without any formal charges.I also asked him of his thoughts on the PATRIOT Act and the recent renewal of some of its terms, and he said some of the same stuff that is in my speech that I wrote yesterday (and am due to deliver come Wednesday).That's it.-Dan...

Detained, among other things

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 18:41:10 -0500

I haven't posted in a long time. So here goes.Yesterday, I was talking to Pete and I showed him a simple demo of a patch I made a couple days ago on my synth. It sounded spacey, like a UFO landing or something. He asked if Enthused could use it in a song on their next album. I said yes. That's it.Next, I've been on a Plan 9 from Outer Space kick lately. It's really a great movie. You should watch it. Really. I'm serious.Then, today I was detained by the....erm....authorities for use of Putty to ssh into styx where I could get all my files from school, and do work. This is nothing new; I've been doing this since 8th grade with no major problems. Matt got bitten in the ass that year for installing winVNC (pronounced "vee-unkh" by our wonderful assistant principal at the time) on a machine in the computer lab (he forgot not to install the server component....a stupid mistake). Then he got yelled at for doing exactly what I was doing just a few months ago, and had the usual account suspension. (he was sshing into his box to setup a proxy server for something, and Mr Snow [admin] logged into his terminal and started moving the mouse on him. He was subsequently called down to Lynch's office and reprimanded, and had his account disabled for a week or so).My story starts a couple days ago when I was in the library for study and doing some quick changes to the fakedbfs code, because I had a cool idea to implement a part of fedit(1) as a shell instead of just running it from the user's shell for each command. As I was implementing this, the librarian came up behind me and asked me what I was doing; I promptly explained that I was programming. She said that I probably shouldn't be doing that. I said fine. A few minutes later, someone else came up and questioned me, and I told them what putty was and she said "I guess it's ok if it's going through." I figured that was the end of the situation.But I was proven wrong today when all three of Kroll, Chronin, and said librarian asked me to go to Kroll's office. I went in, and Chronin said "I hear tell you've been doing some monkey business on the computers," to which I replied "Well, it's just logging into my system at home; nothing malicious. Where in the AUP does it say I can't do this?" I should have shut my big mouth right before the last question, but I didn't. He replied "don't get smart....it's just common sense." I wanted to give a nice witty riposte, but I figured that would be a bad idea, and refrained from doing so. Kroll proceeded to tell me that she talked to Snow about putty and he said that I knew exactly what I was doing, and that I was circumventing the firewall. I said that port 443 is indeed open (in 8th grade, when this firewall BS started [all ports but 80 and 443 blocked], I setup styx to run sshd on 443 as well and all was fine) and hence I wasn't really circumventing anything (you can argue that this is BS all you want, but it's true). Chronin then said that my account would be disabled for one week as a "slap on the fingers" (he later explained that it wasn't even a slap on the wrist, and that he initially recommended a much harsher punishment, but Kroll intervened and said it wasn't anything too bad). I told him I had no intent of malice and was simply trying to do work, since I could also access my school-related files on styx from the terminals at school (such as the speech I was writing when they called me in for questioning). They thanked me for my honesty in the matter. I said "fair enough" and left. That was the end of that. But now I have nothing to do in study, especially for the next week (and I'm not chancing it with putty anymore, so probably for the remainder of the quarter as well). Oh well.And that's it. Have fun.Dan out....

amd64, dead babies, Charles Darwin

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 21:48:34 -0500

I recently got the new drive (thanks Matt) and installed FreeBSD/amd64 on it. Suffice it to say that I'm not too impressed.Firstly, compatibility on amd64 really needs improvement. I know work is currently being done on this, but it hasn't been committed yet. But I can't run opera (yet...), xnview, the nVidia binary driver (which is currently in the works, but they're awaiting some "feature" that isn't available in FreeBSD/amd64...personally I think it's bullshit, but we'll see), openoffice, and stuff crashes sporadically. So in short, this is a big showstopper, and is preventing me from doing a complete switch to amd64.Also of note is that amd64 seems to use a little more RAM (for obvious reasons...sizeof(long) is now 64 bits).There were also some small bugs in certain apps (that I fixed with only a few lines of code), namely because of the interchanging of int and long.I'll see how things pan out, but for now i386 is probably going to be my primary platform.Also, I've heard quite my fair share of dead baby jokes these past couple of days. No, I'm not a necroinfantophile (that's tounge-in-cheek, yay!).And to end on a tragic note, someone fell to his demise after losing his grip while trying to ride the escalator handrail to the third floor at Providence Place. I just think it's evolution doing its work, but that's just me. Darwin awards, anyone?Dan out....

Attempted murder, among other things

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 17:13:14 -0500

Haven't posted in a while. But now the RSS feed for this blog is valid (because it uses RFC822 dates). The changes aren't in dbmv2 CVS yet, so stop complaining.Anyways, it turns out that someone in my grade attempted to murder his brother with a baseball bat. How interesting.So now I'm really into RPN. And I actually ordered parts for the new workstation. All I need now is the motherboard (A8V SE Deluxe). There is a reason why I don't have it yet. Email me if you want to hear the whole thing.And I have to figure out what to call this system. Mail me with your suggestions. Currently, "drwu"/"doctorwu" and "fez" are at the top of the list.Oh, and Frank Zappa has taken over theamigan.net. I'm trying to stop him as we speak. He should surrender by Saturday or Sunday.Dan out....

New workstation

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 02:33:00 -0500

Well, I ordered the parts for the new workstation. It is based on the ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard, with an AMD Athlon64 3200+ CPU (Venice) running at 2GHz. The case, an i-star Nitro, is a full tower and looks really good. When it comes in and I finish building it, I will show you pictures.I'm taking suggestions for the name of this new machine. "doctorwu" is the name I have in mind, but am not sure if it should be "drwu" or another name entirely. Another name I have in mind is "thefez," or simply "fez" (guess which naming scheme those are from). Let me know what you think; I might listen.In other news, I got really hungry, so I attempted to eat what was available within 3 metres of my computer chair. However, the problem is that all edible items are composed of at least 80% sugar, making their hunger-abating powers quite limited. However, I managed to procure both a slice of Muenster cheese and a slice of American cheese. These did a little to help with my hunger problem. However, I am still not satisfied.I hope everyone had a good non-denominational festivity-like event time, and hopefully I will meet my goal of offending more people in 2006.Dan out....

Straight hair, new releases

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:15:00 -0500

So it turns out that I currently have straight hair. That's all I will say on the matter (inquire privately if you really want to know.)And I released fakedbfs 1.1.0 because I am a lazy piece of shit who doesn't feel like delivering on all of my promises (a windows port, namely).And today was the last day before the non-denominational festivity-like event break. How fun.And a new issue of the Rebellion came out recently, but I haven't been able to secure a copy. I'll keep you all posted if I find any more Stupid Shit written by Stupid Shits™.And I'm out of things to say. Bye.-Dan...

Oh no! It's la befana!

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 18:13:00 -0500

Where does the madness end? Today, I sent out the following email in response to being sent this:Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:56:11 -0500From: Dan Ponte To: afapetition@afa.netSubject: get the facts straight before you act irrationallyCc: elizabeth.burmaster@dpi.state.wi.usContent-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1Delivered-To: amigan@gmail.comMr Wildmon:"Labafana" (actually, it's "la Befana," ["befana" is Italian for"feast of the Epiphany"]) is not a "Christmas witch," as you put it.It is an Italian tradition that every year on 5 January, "la Befana"visits childrens' houses much as St. Nicholas does in the US. ("BabboNatale," or "father Christmas" doesn't usually bring gifts).So, please for the sake of your organisation's image, check the factsbefore you spew nonsense. Personally, I am for the secularisation ofpublic institutions; religion has no place whatsoever in our schools,and the Constitution has made it clear. Though, what with thepresident (who you happen to endorse) thinking the Constitution has asmuch value as a piece of toilet paper, I can see how you could makesuch an oversight. If you're going to favour one religion, that isworst of all.Yours,Dan PonteLa Befana? "Christmas witch?" (don't give me any of that crap, you pedantic shits out there; "witch" in this case refers to the occult) Gesu, what are these people thinking? You decide. Email me your thoughts.-Dan...

Maps of myspace, among other things

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 22:59:00 -0500

Last night and today were quite productive; I merged in some changes to fakedbfs (breaking tons of shit in the process), wrote a program so I could use the multimedia keys on napoleon's keyboard, and...uh...that's it.However, Dan and I had speculated a while ago, and myself recently, about what a map of myspace would look like. I'd imagine that besides it being huge, one could discern some interesting trends about geography and friendships; there would probably be clusters of people in the same geographic location, for example. You would probably see less of this trend if bands and such were counted.On a semi-related note (only in the remotest of ways, though), the response to my last post about the "Finding Emo" article was quite positive. Of course, this is because I haven't had any dumbasses read it (yes, I just said anyone who doesn't think it's good is a dumbass, for you...slower readers out there). I suggest you give it a reading if you haven't done so.So, I guess that's it. I have to retool GopherOS's VM subsystem. This will be fun.Dan out....

Interesting...

Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:33:00 -0500

The school newspaper, The Rebellion, came out a couple days ago. And guess what I was oh-so-surprised to find in it? Why, an article dissing Emo kids (and an accompanying sidebar stating something to the tune of "Are you an emo kid? Stop crying and tell us what you think! Send a letter to The Rebellion and perhaps the cruel world will listen!") Now, I personally wasn't too upset about this (except for a couple things, which I will get to later), but many people I know were, quite understandably.Now, as anyone knows me will attest, I am nowhere near being emo. Hell, I've been known to show quite some disdain for emo kids. However, this article touched a raw nerve, namely because it was written by (you guessed it) some ditzy prep-ass girl, whose name I won't disclose because a) I don't know her surname and b) I don't want to be sued.Now, the one thing I found quite comical about this whole incident was the very fact that the person in question was a prep. Still don't get it? Well, let's spell it out in a sample tounge-in-cheek quote: "Put that stupid-assed polo shirt collar down...what the fuck are you, a vampire?" Also of note was the fact that "gloomy punk music" was mentioned in the article. As opposed to rap "music?" "Oooh, look at me, I only listen to music that symbolises a failed attempt at learning English! I'm better than you! Yay!" I'm no fan of punk (or most of today's "rock"), but it's much better than the bullshit that most preps listen to. Besides, these assholes are the reason that I have to drag my ass out to a stadium on Thanksgiving day (and some Fridays) and miss the first course of the meal (along with freezing my ass off), just for their stupid-assed football game. As if I give a flying fuck about high school football. Really, if they want a band, they ought to pay for one. Hopefully it will rain, though (which is in the forecast).In short, these assholes should shut the fuck up. Their style is just as rediculous, if not more so, as that of the people they attempt to put down. And at least emo kids have more intelligence than a brick (knowing the stats of football team del giorno doesn't count as intelligence, folks.)Dan out.UPDATE: Ellen kindly scanned the article. I made some adjustments and blurred out the name (for reasons mentioned above). Here it is....

Stuff that happened

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 20:35:00 -0400

Well, I have a cold, and hence feel like complete shit. To add insult to injury, I had to ride on a bus full of screaming idiots for an hour.However, some productivity did come out of this otherwise shitty day. I made a logo (in Photoshop) for a local band that my friends are in. They had an existing logo, and I think I might have made it shittier by trying to make my own. Oh well.In closing, that's all. Dan out (I need to lay down anyway)....

Hurricane Katrina

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 20:57:00 -0400

I'm positive that all of you have heard at least something about this tragedy. The loss that both Louisianians and Mississippians have experienced cannot be put into words. Many have lost their homes, their families, their businesses, or all three.However, even in these times of desperation and distress, a select few individuals still take it upon themselves to steal and pilfer what is not theirs. As many of you know, there has been much looting and crime going on, especially in New Orleans, that the police are simply so tied up that they cannot restore order. These dumbasses think that because nobody is stopping them, it must be right to walk off with garbage bags full of stolen clothes, electronics, and other items.I have a message for all shop owners who are experiencing this: shoot on the spot. That's right. You heard me. Speed up evolution and take matters into your own hands. Maybe after a few injuries or deaths not caused by the hurricane, the rest of them will learn.And to Signor Bush: you ought to be ashamed of yourself for not helping your own people. Take our troops out of Iraq and put our tax dollars where they are supposed to go: into our country. Send troops to help the affected areas, instead of causing trouble and more bloodshed in the Middle East.My prayers and hopes go out to all those affected. You will pull through; everyone eventually does. That's all I have to say....

RIP Bob Moog

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 22:10:00 -0400

As some of you may have heard, Bob Moog died yesterday after suffering from a brain tumor. He was 71.I'm sure that many of you realise how much of a loss this is to the musical community and especially the electronic music community. Every synthesizer that you play or hear on the radio today is, in some way or another, using Dr Moog's work.Thanks for everything, Bob. I think I speak for us all when I say that you will be greatly missed....

Golf and other stuff

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 23:34:00 -0400

I was listening to the radio and some idiot comes on ranting and raving about golf. So, I decided to create a satirical, but eerily realistic golf sportscaster conversation.Jim: Well John, it seems as if he is about to putt.John: Yep'n, I'd reckon as much. You know, if he gets it in the hole, the spectators might awaken from their comas.Jim: Yes. [pauses] I think he just hit the ball!John: Yes. If you look closely, you can see the little indentations on the ball moving around as it rolls across the green.Jim: Now, I think you're right. It's quite interesting. You know, the crowd is unusually lively today; two people are showing visible signs of life!John: How true! Wow, the ball went into the hole! If he does this a few more times, he might win!Jim: Maybe. I've just received reports that one spectator has just gone completely unconscious. The emergency medical services will be arriving soon.John: You know, that's happened a couple of times in my career. And every time, they said it was because of something called "boredom." You ever heard of that, Jim?Jim: No, but those stupid golf-haters always talk about it. Oh well; who cares what they think?John: Right you are. Well, stay tuned; we'll be right back after the commercials.At this point, I'm already about to enter a deep state of sleep. But on with the show.Now, sportscasters have to have the most worthless job on the planet. And yet, they make millions more than the average hard-working American. How can this be? I guess that's capitalism for you.Just like CEOs, I tell you....

BeOS

Sun, 03 Jul 2005 23:20:00 -0400

I've recently gotten back into BeOS. So I downloaded the DevEd 1.1, removed my main drive and put in an old 8.4GB, and installed BeOS on it. Now, my previous experience was limited to a "fake" system -- 5PE under Linux. But now that I have a nice, real BFS partition with lots of space, I can actually do stuff. First, let me say that BFS has to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen with regards to filesystems. It is a database-like filesystem that has queries, attributes (of arbitrary type and length), and supports MIME natively (well BeOS does, and the attributes allow that to be so). For example, BeMail/mail_daemon use ordinary files and folders to store messages (much like Maildir), and one uses Tracker to navigate them (BeMail just reads mail and sends files). Each message has its various properties stored as BFS attributes. So, one can use the ordinary Tracker "Find" dialogue (or the query command in the shell) to say "give me all messages from X sent after Y but before Z" and get back results very quickly. WinFS is supposed to have the same concepts, but BFS dates back to 1996. And, knowing most of Microsoft's products, it will most likely be extremely buggy and not live up to its hype (assuming it ever gets out of the vaporware stage!) Other things about BeOS I like are the extremely consistent (and good-looking) GUI, its responsiveness, the use of threading in most places (no more GUI-locks-while-IO-is-done), and the very clean (admittedly, C++) API. Oh, and it is POSIX compliant. So, there you have it. It's a shame Be went out of business, because this system could have been so much more. But it's great as it is.By the way, I'm posting this from NetPositive. Yes, I know I can use Mozilla, but who cares?...

Physically Ill

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 22:33:00 -0400

So tonight I decided to turn on the AM radio. I tune it to 630KHz, and guess who's on? Michael Savage and his bullshit radio show!I listened to the show for a few minutes and it started to make me sick at the BS he was spewing. And now O'Reilly is on, and I want to find that man and tie him down while I beat him with a cluestick.Right now, he's grilling Durbin for some comments that he made. These people need a life; the man's right: it is, as someone put it, "the gulag of our time." The comment does no disservice to any soldiers; they abuse and mistreat detainees, they ought to have their asses punished for it. Just because you are in the military doesn't mean you can do whatever the fuck you want without criticism.Now Billy goat is talking about "propaganda channels." As opposed to The Fair and Balanced Network. And he's ranting about how "Durbin should go." Listen fucker, Durbin will go when his voters feel it's time. So I suggest you get back in bed with Bush and leave the thinking to the rest of us.Right-wing dumbasses. And make no mistake; the left-wing extremists are almost as bad. But the right-wingers just have a knack for sounding like a bunch of tight-assed rednecks with an axe to grind....

microKorg

Wed, 15 Jun 2005 16:08:00 -0400

You heard me. I'm planning on purchasing that synth. When I get the money, that is.It does a lot. Some on the synth groups on USENET claim that it isn't good and hard to use. I think that they are full of shit. I tried it at Guitar Centre a few weeks ago and was very impressed. Editing is a breeze. Of course, an MS2000 would be nicer, but I don't have that money. And it isn't as portable....

Macs with x86?

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:01:00 -0400

'Twas a lamentable day yesterday, as Jobs announced that Macs will now be using x86 instead of PPC. And here I was thinking that there still was a saving grace from suck-ass computers and CPUs, here in 2005.I still have my 68k amiga here, at least. And maybe I can get to purchasing a Mac or two before they go crappy (and have DRM, to boot!)Just remember, here in Intel country, 0x5a4f == 0x4f5a.Businesses suck....

Trip and stuff

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 15:09:00 -0400

Well, my trip being on Wednseday, I have some, err, preparations to finish.First and foremost is the type of film I will take. I have been trying to choose between slide or print, b&w or colour. I've not taken slides in a while, and would like to try them. I really like black and white, but am afraid that a trip to Florida isn't exactly a good setting for it.I will be taking my trusty K1000. People have told me that I am crazy, since it is (as you may know) fully manual, and since I'm a little rusty with it, it takes a good 10-15 seconds for me to finish composing and adjusting to finally snap the picture. That doesn't really matter, since I am a stubborn jackass and refuse to go digital until the Nikon D70 (or comparable DSLR) comes down in price. My dad has one and I love it.Of course, my K1000 is no small fry, by any means. My setup includes an SMC Pentax 50mm (fixed, standard K mount) f/2 lens, and an SMC PENTAX-A 70-210mm f/4 zoom lens (KA mount). I have a standard Vivitar flash (not the best, but it gets the job done).So, as this photographic deliberation continues, I should be packing....

Idiots.

Thu, 21 Apr 2005 23:39:00 -0400

I can't believe some people. It's a fucking salt stain, for Pete's sake (not Christ). These idiots see these "visions"...it's no different from believing in ghosts. This is just like the other whackjobs up in Pawtucket some years ago that claimed to have seen a "vision" of the Virgin Mary in a window on a school.Sheesh. People never cease to amaze me.And let's not the rich dumbasses; they need to be recognized, too!More dumbass blonde antics. Sheesh. Who watches that bullshit "show" anyway? More of television going down the tubes (no pun intended)....

Thoughts on stuff

Thu, 21 Apr 2005 23:40:00 -0400

I finally got back from PA. While I was there, I read Moore's The Official Fahrenheit 911 Reader. While doing so, I had some thoughts.Most of the people in this country (including Republicans, whether they admit it or not) know that the current administration has lied about almost everything; I doubt that you could trust Bush to tell you the correct time of day. However, we, the American public, have continually gone along with it as if we were a bunch of lemmings (which isn't far from the truth). Hell, we re-elected the guy!Now, many have told me that there's no use in continuing to be involved with this debacle, however I feel that even if he only has four more years to go (barring a Constitutional amendment), he's still screwing the American public. Here it is, 2005 and hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives later and we are still living with the repercussions of his reign.And may I remind you that it's not just Bush we have to worry about; crooks are all over the Republican party.Not to say that Democrats don't also have their fair share of blunders, however they are much more pronounced in the Republican party. Which is why I am a Libertarian.I plan on doing an article on all of this (with some rudimentary investigative...err...reporting); stay tuned...

Spam

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 14:48:00 -0400

This post is about spam. Spam pisses me off. Spam is bad for you. If you spam someone, you are condemned to be shot in the head 20 times, have your body mutilated by a guitar pick, be shot again, be mutilated again with an acetylene torch (fun), and then have your body left to rot in a sewage treatment plant, so you can be treated like the piece of shit that you are.I think that is a very colourful way to teach this jackasses, isn't? No, jail time is not good enough. Execution by lethal injection isn't good enough (though electric chair with a dry sponge should suffice). That is how we should teach the scum of society a lesson.You probably think I'm a very grim person for saying what I said, but let me move on to a happier subject: after almost 4 years of training, my Yahoo! mail account is 95% effective at keeping the byproduct of idiots out of my inbox. Here, "byproduct of idiots" refers to the idiots that respond to spam, hence making the lowlifes in the "e-mail marketing 'profession'" feel as if their "business model" is effective.Oh, another happy subject: I'm going to Florida in 15 days. I can get away from the idiots here in this state and see the rednecks in that state....

NonBullshitCD

Sun, 10 Apr 2005 16:33:00 -0400

NonBullshitCD is a CD player that doesn't suck. By "doesn't suck," I mean the following:Doesn't use audio extractionIsn't a media playerTakes less than 10MB of RAMHas an install program that fits on a standard, DS-HD MS-DOS formatted floppy diskPeople say I'm crazy for the first point, but I have a CPU to do computing, not play music.This app was written in VC++ 6. That brings up another point: I've learned a lot about C++ and the Win32 APIs lately (I used MFC). C++ isn't nearly as bad for Windows development as it is for Unix development. But that's because on Windows, nobody cares if the executable is a few more KB in size. On Unix, people do.When it's officially released (it's currently at 1.1.0, but has a lot of bugs yet), I will put up a link. Until then, live with it. (though it exists somewhere on this server. See if you can find it)....