Socks for you!

Why do I use Linux?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:20:39 GMT

I get asked this question sometimes, and after reading Hellow's Blog, I decided to post my responce in both places.

I don't own an Apple because I can't afford it -- more expensive for slightly different hardware. I can't customize it -- for a box which expresses how 'cool' you're supposed to be they all look really similar (you can't think different if everyone is on a Mac).

I don't use Microsoft Windows because I can't fix it -- most people aren't programmers, but the fact that simply knowing one (or being one) can get a bug fixed is awesome. I can't use it -- I can't work without multiple deskops and sloppy focus. Its just too painful.

I use Linux because I can do anything. I can do just about anything I want. :-)

Originally published at Socks for all.

Why do I use Linux?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:20:39 GMT

I get asked this question sometimes, and after reading Hellow's Blog, I decided to post my responce in both places.

I don't own an Apple because I can't afford it -- more expensive for slightly different hardware. I can't customize it -- for a box which expresses how 'cool' you're supposed to be they all look really similar (you can't think different if everyone is on a Mac).

I don't use Microsoft Windows because I can't fix it -- most people aren't programmers, but the fact that simply knowing one (or being one) can get a bug fixed is awesome. I can't use it -- I can't work without multiple deskops, and sloppy focus. Its just too painful.

I use Linux because I can do anything. I can do just about anything I want.

Originally published at Socks for all.

I want a centrifuge to make unmixed drinks.

Thu, 21 May 2009 16:49:58 GMT

Well school's been out for a while. Obligitory grade post:

Class	Title	Grade
Computer Science 562 01	Pinciples of Operating Systems	A-
Computer Science 563 01	Basic Systems Administration Lab	A+
Computer Science 567 01	Pinciples of Computer Networks	C-
English 105 05	Introduction to Narritive	A-
Math 532 01	Graph Theory	B-

This means that my semester GPA is a 3.05, or a B average, not too bad. I'm disappointed by the C- in Networks, but it was a "Revenge of the non-programmers" class -- everyone who hated programming did well. I'm (obviously) not in that category, nor did I find much of the information useful.

I'm still trying to get my room mate situation resolved. My preferred room mate waited too long to cancel his housing and got his balls caught in a vice by UNCG. Why do I need a room mate? In case you haven't heard Meg and I are no longer together (though we are still on friendly terms) and she's moved back to the Charlotte area. While obviously I'm upset, I'm done lamenting over that, and now all I can see is my entertainment system is not longer entertaining. 37+ HDTV downgraded to 21 SDTV. Blech.

I've wooted lately, my prize? Why Unlimitted supply of air! For a guy who regualarly does tech support and is in possession of too many computers, that's a good thing.

I got a full time job lined up, and I start on the first of June, but more on that later. These is enough words for now.

Originally published at Socks for all.

I should clean: there's stuff over all my dust.

Sat, 02 May 2009 00:35:04 GMT

I didn't get into Summer of Code. I'm sad. I'm guessing it wasn't even close, which is a shame because I thought I had a good (original) idea that could have improved Linux in the office as well as the home. Oh well. School is winding down, but really that means up because of all the exams, final projects, etc.

Meg and I are no longer together, so I'm hopefuly going to be rooming with Zach next year. For two months though, I'll have the apartment to myself. I'm keeping our dog, Corabelle (my little minion), but Meg gets the fish. I need a new TV! Because I've now been spoiled by that HighDef thing, and I can't go back to SDTV and its pitiful 480i resolution. Bah. And I almost had my media center set up just right, too.

If I wanted a cap I'd buy a hat

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:07:15 GMT

Time Warner's gonna start capping our Internets! Starting in August, only 40GB/month for what we're paying now. An unlimited plan would be $150 (compared to the $35 I pay now). 40 Gigabytes per month isn't even 8 highdef movies (ala Hulu or Netflix). This is unacceptable. I hope that ATT U-Verse comes to our area shortly. Sounds like a much better plan.

Easter was alright. Got the FAFSA filed for my final year of college next year.

Originally published at Socks for all.

A required "I'm not dead" post.

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:26:30 GMT

Bah! I'm still alive and kicking. Getting sick, that sucks. Last weekend there was a local ACM contest between some schools in the triad. My team took second place! Hooray (and it was close).

I've applied to Google's Summer of Code. My project is entitled "Simplification of Authentication", as part of Gnome. The gist is that on one machine you say "Allow others to log on via this machine" and on a bunch of others you say "Log on via that machine". Now you only have one computer to keep up to date with everyone's user names and passwords, and any computer in your network can use those. Hence the Authentication. Can you do this already? Yes. Can you do it easily, let alone with two clicks? No. Hence the Simplification part. That's important when you discover you have seven+ logical operating systems:

Main computer, Ubuntu Linux partition

Main computer, Microsoft Windows Vista partition

Main computer, Microsoft Windows Vista virtual machine (so I don't have to reboot to test something)

Server

Netbook

Girl friend's computer

Test computer

Any other virtual machines I may run from time to time

Being able to have one log on helps tremendously here.

I wrote some patches to clean up Evolution, and remove some of the old libgnome (because libgnome Must Die).

Easter's coming up. I'm going to Charlotte.

Goodbye.

Originally published at Socks for all.

This semester halts, apparently

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:54:27 GMT

Well, I've reduced UNCG's schedule to the Halting Problem. And apparently this semester is halts (is finaly over), and I've passed all my classes, hooray! Not that I was expecting to fail, but I wasn't really expecting to be this consistant:

Subject & Course	Course Title	Final Grade
Bio 111	Principles of Biology	B-
CSC 540	Human-Computer Interface Development	B+
CSC 553	Theory of Computation	B+
MAT 293	Calculus III	B-
THR 130	Fundamentals of Acting	B+*

This is the first time I've made a B in any of my Computer Science classes, let alone two. Theory of Computation was difficult, but the sore part was just the crappy book. Really crappy. Human-Computer Interface Development wasn't really what I thought it would be. I was expecting a class full of wonder in how to design UI and it didn't really feel like a 500 level class. To top it all off, the whole emphasis on the class was on how only the user mattered, not how hard it was to code, and our final project had to be written in a Java Applet. What a mistake.

*UPDATE: Apparently, this should be a B+, but there were some e-mail issues; My updated grade will have to wait.

Originally published at Socks for all.

Ah crap, I mean, OOPS.

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:45:47 GMT

My system had a little oops today. Which is kind of like a BSOD, only your system MIGHT still work. Mine didn't. I'm kind of sad though, because this is just a few days after I turned off OOPS reporting for some reason, probably in search of more performance. I wont do that again, in case something happens again.

On the up side, my machine can suspend now! Turns out it wasn't a problem with Linux, but a problem with the BIOS, which could cause "64-bit operating systems with more than 4 GB or more of RAM to fail to resume from suspend", which I guess explains why my machine shipped with the 32-bit version of Windows Vista. A quick BIOS flash later, and everything worked on the second try (I have no idea what happened the first time).

I've got one more exam left, but so far I've made a B- in Biology, and a B+ in Theory of Computation. Still waiting for the last 3 grades.

Originally published at Socks for all.

Its time for Perfectoin

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:30:28 GMT

Today I discovered that the United States postal service will not forward credit cards. This is a good idea, but I didn't know it, so that's causing me problems now. So its Christmas time, except not. I don't feel the holiday cheer this year. Maybe its the recession. Maybe the recession is just a scapegoat for everything right now. I was supposed to have a productive day today, and didn't get half my todo list done. I'm sure that if the economy were strong I would have gotten everything done (yeah right).

I've got exams coming up, today was reading day - or a day with no classes; exams start tomorrow. I've got Biology tomorrow, but its at noon so I've got time to study before. Recently I've found myself to be very apathetic towards most of my classes. Perhaps its that "senioritis". I need to cut that shit out next semester, but its always worse in the Spring. Hope to change that this year.

Originally published at Socks for all.

Preserve Wildlife! Throw a party today!

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:23:11 GMT

Today Meg and I went to the gym after we discovered that we wouldn't be gaming with friends today - we also got groceries and lots of meat.

I spent the rest of the day working on an older project that I started almost a year ago. After realizing that it just doesn't compile with the newer GCC (that was rather irrating to make changes and all of a sudden it doesn't work, but should) AND getting it to (kind of) work with autotools, I set off to do the real work - rewrite data sources into XML from the stupid dinky format that was earlier.

I thought XML was supposed to make things easier. Then again, I thought C++ was supposed to do the same thing. Actually libxml++ isn't that bad, I think its just more a matter of I don't know what I'm doing so I get all these extra results to parse through. Also, there wasn't too much documentation to find on the website or on the web. Surely there's a way to say "return all subchildren of this node WITH A MAX DEPTH OF ONE". Anyway, I ended the day with fewer features than when I started with, but the rest should be easy to insert now. Perhaps if all goes according to plan I'll code drop in a month or two.

This makes two days in a row that I've done something productive.

Originally published at Socks for all.

Let's not complicate our relationship by trying to communicate with each other

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 05:36:20 GMT

If all goes according acording to plan, then you should be reading this post of livejournal, even though I've typed it on my new Wordpress blog, located here. I'm actually using wordpress to manage all of my website as I'm not an artist and have poor design skills (mighmos.org actually redirects you to the blog now).

Originally published at Socks for all.

I can haz XKCD copiez too!

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:30:05 GMT

The discussion of digital restrictions management has come up a few times in the past few days, and XKCD published this work today:

Things not too funny

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:22:30 GMT

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:52:04 GMT

But we mustn't regulate [the bankers], because then we run the risk of driving them out of the country. Maybe this argument will catch on during burglaries. If the thief is caught running out of the house with the jewelry, he'll say: "Don't try and stop me, or you might frighten me off, and I'll leave the house altogether." Then the family will discuss the matter, saying: "Hmm, he's got a point," and instead warn the burglar that if he keeps doing it, he'll be a fool to himself, as there'll be nothing left to rob.

~ Mark Steel

My take on Clinton

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:37:57 GMT

Of course the latter would be showing ads on improving the bike in a
static but now since I love; EABI ARM bpt and properly bound copies of
course the power switch was a readable feed of a neat MAME I can use at
least livejournal will remain static but I'll probably make a bit on a
bit on after a programming project now violating their principles after
it is the least; livejournal.

Created via dadadodo. Pass it on.

Sometimes

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 08:49:54 GMT

Sometimes all you want is a steak breakfast. Sometimes, you have to get it at 3:00 in the morning. As well as: a bowl of soup, some hashbrowns, a biscut, two eggs, and two chillidogs. I'm full now.

Some stuff

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:39:15 GMT

Classes were boring. Zach is over. We're going to play 90s arcade games.

Sprinkling open source dust onto coca cola

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:14:10 GMT

Ugh. I broke the first rule of hunting. I spilled my beer. I wasn't really hunting at the time, but unfortunately the beer landed on Das Keyboard. Its had a cycle through the dishwasher as I've heard to do once it started spazzing out, so I'm using a `regular' keyboard for the time being.

Classes don't seem as interesting as I thought they would be, and I'll have to learn Java (again), but at least my schedule isn't bad.

Finally figured out how to get Vista to boot with AHCI (SATA) drives. Turns out that Vista will disable drivers that aren't in use at every boot. Problem: what if we'll need those drivers to boot later? The fix involved navigating regedit. I'm still trying to figure out why Alienware shipped them set to IDE mode by default.

Computa!

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:46:51 GMT

Today I finished cleaning up all my documents and pictures and stuff stored on my hard drive. And I don't mean deleting, but organizing. Its hard to make backups if your data isn't organized (Reminder: Could you afford to lose all of your data tomorrow?).
While I was at it, I unsubscribed from a bunch of mailing lists I don't read anymore in the eternal effort to clean up one's inbox.

Decided to beta-test the latest version of Ubuntu, but didn't get very far. My DVD burner was burning very slowly, and eventually errored out. So I swapped it with the drive I've been meaning to replace it with (SATA connection), and burned the new DVD quickly and painlessly. At this point I made sure I could read my backups (important!) and then stuck the new CD in the drive and rebooted.
[5 minutes later]
CD fails to boot, but it now scratched to shit as DVD drive is making odd noises. Even when its off :-\

Also, on another note I need to get one of my teeth repaired, as a filling for a chipped tooth that I got years ago chipped off again today. *sigh*

Posted using LJ Talk...

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:15:23 GMT

*sigh*

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

Posted using LJ Talk...

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:38:23 GMT

OMG my website is horribly outdated. I should fix that "when I get more time". Like that will happen. Blog: bad idea. Don't need that anymore. I don't do too much backporting anymore either now that I've found getdeb.net. Awesome software for Ubuntu.

Each day I'm older than I've ever been

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:35:55 GMT

I turned 21 a few days ago, and that was cool, I guess. Legal drinking age and all that jazz. Not too much exciting happened. Been listening to Blind Guardian a lot, recently.

Wednesday night I ent down to Charlotte with Meg for a doctor's appointmenet, and did that. Then I got to see Batman The Dark Knight in the IMAX theater with Meg and my dad, which was cool. One word: BIG. Sadly the IMAX theater has problems with fast moving scenes, and it was a little too dark for my tastes. But with the scenes that were specifically shot for it it was awesome.

Also, I've decided that now that I'm 21, I should change my user pic:

from to . Much better :-)

Sadly, I wish LJ wouldn't retroactively update all the entries that were created with the "default" user pic.

Also, for the small group of people who read my livejournal, work with LaTeX, and play Dungeons and Dragons 4th ed, I've finally created a template for the power sheets. It allows the user to create power sheets that look like this, from a source that looks like this. <source>

PS: I hate the & key, its never where I think it is (I always this its where ^ is).

Posted using LJ Talk...

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:52:50 GMT

I think I ate a bad sandwich and Panera Bread.

Look out or you'll be eaten by fruit!

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:56:16 GMT

Moving was an adventure. Unfortunately, due to the fact that both Meg and myself had a good amount of work the week before, the house was a mess already before we started moving. But fortunately, with the help of some good friends (Brent, Amy, Chuck) and Meg's parents, we were able to get everything moved over a lot faster. Thanks, guys.

We're here now, and its a lot bigger, than the old place, although everything is still everywhere. Need to clean. And we got our little puppy back! Now all we need is furnature.

Another meme

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:05:37 GMT

Tip: for systems with sed (Linux, BSDs, Mac), the command to clear the meme's answers (where meme.txt is everything below) is:

sed s/\(.*\):.*/\1: /g meme.txt > new_meme.txt

1. I've come to realize that my butt: can be an ass.

2. I've come to realize that when I talk: I don't stop

3. I've come to realize that if I love someone: I just want you to be happy.

4. I've come to realize that I need: motivation

5. I've come to realize that I've lost: my past.

6. I've come to realize that I hate it when: people are willfully ignorant. Or I'm a lazy bum.

7. I've come to realize that if I'm drunk: I'll woefully realize how drunk I was tomorrow.

8. I've come to realize that money: isn't the best thing in the world, but it sure helps everything else out.

9. I've come to realize that my mother: is one of the most caring women I know.

10. I've come to realize that I'll probably always be: me.

11. I've come to realize that I have a crush on: Corabelle, crime fighting dog.

12. I've come to realize that the last time I cried was: when I had tears coming down my eyes.

13. I've come to realize that my cell phone: isn't that important. It can always wait.

14. I've come to realize that when I wake up in the morning: its no longer morning.

15. I've come to realize that before I go to sleep at night: I remember what I should have done.

16. I've come to realize that right now I am thinking about: Being a smartass.

17. I've come to realize that babies: aren't cute.

18. I've come to realize that when I get on livejournal: I'm relying on others to create content when I myself, am not.

19. I've come to realize that today I will: have at least accomplished something.

20. I've come to realize that tonight I will: eat?

21. I've come to realize that tomorrow I will: still be here.

22. I've come to realize that I really want to: be accomplished.

23. I've come to realize that who is most likely to repost this is: Meg?

24. I've come to realize relationships: are in fact, tricky. Its just happens later.

25. I've come to realize love: is like a motorcycle. But you can come up with the how.

26. I've come to realize my best guy friend: is a pretty good friend.

27. I've come to realize my best girl friend: Other than Meg, isn't the best friend.

28. I've come to realize food: is the shit.

29. I've come to realize that when I'm a Husband: I should be proud.

30. I've come to realize girls and boys: aren't that different in the end.

31. I've come to realize over the summer: I've answered 1 too many questions.

32. I've come to realize heartbreak:

33. I've come to realize my life:

34. I've come to realize that leaving things behind: Is inevitable. Dealing with it however, is not.