05.11.06
Posted in General at 4:46 am by jw
The temporary move to San Jose is pretty much complete now. We have our computers all working in the 2nd bedroom and the hotel staff were nice enough to pull all the extra beds out of there so we have a lot of room to spread out, at least in the one room. Back on EQ2 again and should be caught up on all the progress we missed in the 2 weeks we were gone pretty soon now.
My new toy of the week is a mini-pc from AOpen which I managed to get through the purchasing department (ie wife) to replace the old Linux box we left behind in Pittsburgh. It really is a great little machine – 1.5 GHz Celeron, 1G DDR2 memory, 30G HDD with 250G external USB2 drive attached, gigabit ethernet, slot loading DVD/CDRW and all for just under $500. Honestly it’s pretty hard to complain about that sort of value – especially when it comes in a tiny little 6†square, 2†tall case. It’s really the perfect headless Linux box!
As expected, Gentoo went smoothly onto the machine and it compiled and ran in no time compared to my old 650MHz Duron box. I definitely love that distribution. Nothing like being able to compile your entire system from scratch specifically optimized for your CPU with a few simple “emerge†commands. Guess that’s the geek factor for you.
Nothing much else new (thankfully – not much time for anything else new). Still working on a way to get an externally visible IP address for stuff like custom web serving and MUD/MOO hosting – probably going to go with a VPS system from DEHE (who are a subsiduary of Solidhost, my current provider) so I can play around to my heart’s content!
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05.05.06
Posted in Shorts at 12:12 pm by jw
My work PC and monitor was shipped via FedEx from Pittsburgh to San Jose. I just have to say that FedEx really knows how to beat the living crap out of packages. They really looked like they had been dropped 3 or 4 floors onto some irregular object. The most amazing thing was the stand for the LCD was actually sheared apart in two places on the base – definitely not something that casual mistreatment could possibly do.
On a side note – I’ve never seen UPS or even US Post treat packages that badly. Only FedEx.
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04.27.06
Posted in Shorts at 11:46 am by jw
Just reading through Bruce Schneier’s essays and op-eds and I have to say that as usual he’s an incredibly smart guy who really knows the deal with security, even when it’s applied to non-geek stuff.
From Airline Security a Waste of Cash
Exactly two things have made airline travel safer since 9/11: reinforcement of cockpit doors, and passengers who now know that they may have to fight back. Everything else — Secure Flight and Trusted Traveler included — is security theater.
From Unchecked Presidential Power
Laws are what give us security against the actions of the majority and the powerful. If we discard our constitutional protections against tyranny in an attempt to protect us from terrorism, we’re all less safe as a result.
From Airplane Security and Metal Knives
Maybe people who have watched MacGyver should never be allowed to fly.
Honestly, every one of Bruce’s essays is a must read for anyone who remotely thinks that we are either more or less secure since 9/11, or who is actually interested in their own security.
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04.24.06
Posted in Shorts at 1:18 pm by jw
I was playing Tomb Raider:Legend and my wife was commenting about the unrealistic measurements of Lara. Well, this required scientific analysis so I got the screenshots, a ruler and measured the major and minor axis of her bust, waist and hips. Plugging these into an ellipse circumference calculator (which is apparently way more complex than a circle’s circumference) I found that assuming she’s 5’6” then her measurements are 34/20/34. Yeah – probably a little wasp waisted…
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04.20.06
Posted in Shorts at 10:53 pm by jw
I’m moving to San Jose for 6 months for work and we’re giving up the lease on our apartment here in Pittsburgh for that time with the intention of buying a house when we get back. All I have to say right now is it’s amazing how many books my wife and I have collected in the 5 years we’ve been in the states, and it’s even more amazing how damn heavy they are when you put them in boxes to put in storage.
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