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01 July 2015

A random thought regarding copyrights...

So... Oracle's suit regarding the copyrights of APIs has been upheld by the SCOTUS...

a random thought entered my mind: The HTTP protocol may be considered an API and every access to some URL which causes code to be executed is an API... Perhaps Google could stop indexing all Oracle properties on the web because they could "fear" being sued for misappropriating Oracle's APIs and require that Oracle submit by postal mail a letter from their lawyers with permission to index a page, including the URL and SHA2 hash of each page where Oracle gives Google permission to copy for indexing purposes. Then Google will only list pages which matches the provided SHA2 hash.

21 June 2015

Mucking around with ZooKeeper and Netty 4

ZooKeeper using Netty4 with a common netty worker pool...
Would be trivial to switch it to use the Netty 4 epoll implementation.

Now... To continue what I started hacking on ...

0 [main] INFO org.apache.zookeeper.server.ZooKeeperServer  - Server environment:zookeeper.version=3.4.6-1569965, built on 02/20/2014 09:09 GMT
...
39 [main] INFO org.apache.zookeeper.server.ZooKeeperServer - Created server with tickTime 3000 minSessionTimeout 6000 maxSessionTimeout 60000 datadir /var/folders/4l/kmd0x0_x0q587n81vrrfjks40000z9/T/org.xiphis.zookeeper.TestZookeeper/zksnap/version-2 snapdir /var/folders/4l/kmd0x0_x0q587n81vrrfjks40000z9/T/org.xiphis.zookeeper.TestZookeeper/zklog/version-2
54 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.logging.InternalLoggerFactory - Using SLF4J as the default logging framework
60 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent0 - java.nio.Buffer.address: available
61 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent0 - sun.misc.Unsafe.theUnsafe: available
61 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent0 - sun.misc.Unsafe.copyMemory: available
62 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent0 - java.nio.Bits.unaligned: true
64 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent - Java version: 8
65 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent - -Dio.netty.noUnsafe: false
65 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent - sun.misc.Unsafe: available
66 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent - -Dio.netty.noJavassist: false
68 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent - Javassist: unavailable
68 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent - You don't have Javassist in your class path or you don't have enough permission to load dynamically generated classes. Please check the configuration for better performance.
69 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent - -Dio.netty.tmpdir: /var/folders/4l/kmd0x0_x0q587n81vrrfjks40000z9/T (java.io.tmpdir)
69 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent - -Dio.netty.bitMode: 64 (sun.arch.data.model)
69 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent - -Dio.netty.noPreferDirect: false
111 [main] DEBUG io.netty.channel.MultithreadEventLoopGroup - -Dio.netty.eventLoopThreads: 8
172 [main] DEBUG io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop - -Dio.netty.noKeySetOptimization: false
172 [main] DEBUG io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop - -Dio.netty.selectorAutoRebuildThreshold: 512
208 [main] INFO org.apache.zookeeper.server.Netty4ServerCnxnFactory - binding to port 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0:62326
236 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.internal.ThreadLocalRandom - -Dio.netty.initialSeedUniquifier: 0x1216b72d21d3cb0f (took 13 ms)
278 [main] DEBUG io.netty.buffer.ByteBufUtil - -Dio.netty.allocator.type: unpooled
278 [main] DEBUG io.netty.buffer.ByteBufUtil - -Dio.netty.threadLocalDirectBufferSize: 65536
282 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.NetUtil - Loopback interface: lo0 (lo0, 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1)
282 [main] DEBUG io.netty.util.NetUtil - /proc/sys/net/core/somaxconn: 128 (non-existent)

19 January 2015

Global Internet Access

There appears to be a rash of billionaires announcing support for the idea of a global satellite-based internet service, for example: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/197711-elon-musk-unveils-new-plan-to-circle-to-earth-in-satellites-for-fast-low-latency-internet

I would wager that if we have had good affordable internet in our first-world abodes, the wealthy would not be so inclined to think of such schemes. Like as like not, for a new third-party to compete on the ground is practically impossible due to legal red tape and so the space option becomes the most practical, in spite of being a bit inefficient. It's easy to imagine the Elon Musks of the world venting frustration about lack of coverage or simply being unable to cancel Comcast without losing sanity...

Of course, when the time comes, the legacy telcos will complain about unfair competition from these upstarts and will campaign for government hand-outs to help modernise their networks; something which they should already be doing instead of accumulating profit and giving the money to their directors and shareholders.

It will be curious to see what happens. Ideally, the telcos will see the light; otherwise, I won't lose any sleep as their networks decay into obsolescence.

13 January 2015

Fox news Christian terrorists

Christian terrorist Jeanine Pirro, calling for a jihad/crusade to mass murder other people because other places which have tried mass murder worked out great.

I'm all for free speech except when it's threats, advocating violence or inciting violence.

Unlike the fox gaffe earlier this week, this is not funny.

#FoxNewsFacts

01 December 2014

Rowhammer: ECC DRAM by default?

Apparently, there has been a weakness in modern DRAM which had been known within the computing industry since 2012 which has been given name rowhammer. It is particularly the interesting because if how nearby memory locations have their bits flipped which violates the very foundation of our modern multiprocess systems.
Perhaps, it is time that all our PCs should have ECC memory by default which would at least fix single bit disturbances?

25 November 2014

Some project foundation classes for Java.

Have been organising and repackaging some of my source code for release as free open source code. The flavour du jour is Java and these are just a few foundation classes which will be built upon in further packages, hopefully released soon (time permitting). #OpenSource #BSD #Java https://github.com/xiphis/xiphis-utils

13 November 2014

Oh, how editing standards at The Guardian has fallen.

The Guardian posted this article, entitled: Women, beware this PUA army of sleazebags, saddos and weirdos by Hadley Freeman
"They’re sci-fi saddos; they’re World of Warcraft weirdos"
As someone who enjoys sci-fi and whose name is in the credits for more than one WoW game, this is inappropriate offensive mischaracterization. Some people are jerks because that is simply what they are and it has nothing to do with what fiction genre they enjoy or what computer games they have played.
I guess The Guardian is becoming just another sleazy tabloid with ineffective editors.

#TheGuardian

Originally posted at Facebook

07 August 2014

The right tool for the job...

I've just thought of a great analogy for something:

Imagine that a team has an OKR:

  • Objective: Secure a piece of wood to another piece of wood.
  • Key Results:
    1. Select a suitable fastener.
    2. Select a suitable tool.
    3. Fasten the pieces of wood together.

The team chooses a good wood screw.
The team chooses a good electric screwdriver.

The two items are designed to work together.


The team puts the wood screw into the hole.
The team then proceeds to use the electric screwdriver as a hammer,
hammering the screw into the hole.
Bits of the electric screwdriver shatter. The head of the screw is mangled.

OKR objective and key results achieved.


Now imagine that someone needs to fix this, afterwards.

31 July 2014

Opinion: Blogging about homophones and homonyms.

Homophones and homonyms are two very important aspects of the English language which non-native speakers of the language need to understand in order to adequately communicate unambiguously with native English speakers. If this person was fired for blogging about them from a "language school", then it can't have been a good language school.

31 May 2014

On Intelligence

Before going on holiday, I grabbed a book from my "to be read" pile and this time, it was the book "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins.
This is, by far, the most approachable book I have read on the topic in about 15 years and even though the first 100 pages of this 245 page book hasn't yet expounded upon the meat of the topic which the author wants to discuss, he does excellent job of using analogies to bring readers of many levels to the same point.
Jeff Hawkins puts together a very convincing case and I think that this book is a "must read" for everyone who, at least, has a passing curiosity on the nature and nurture of consciousness.

30 May 2014

Google Play Services

Why must "Google Play Services" use up 40% of my phone's power consumption? Ugh.
#android #googlefail

16 May 2014

OsmAnd is better than Google Maps

I am using a HTC One M7 phone and to maximise battery life, I have mine configured to not use WiFi+Data to determine location. Because of this, Google Maps gets in a pouty mess and refuses to work even though it may use the GPS to directly acquire the location. OsmAnd doesn't throw such tantrums and works fine.
I should note that this tantrum of Google Maps appears to be a recent change, possibly related to their "show nearby offers" feature. In any case, it is a huge step backwards in functionality.

Do no evil, Google?

Actually, I'd settle for "no regression".

I can no longer recommend Google Maps for mapping on Android. It is broken. However, Open Street Maps' OsmAnd works great and did not balk when used 6500 miles apart without rebooting the phone.

01 May 2014

Dear HTC, a suggestion for M9

If only they'd listen...
Dear HTC,

Please bring back the pogo-pin dock connectors for charging and auto-pairing to Bluetooth audio devices.

I do enjoy your HTC One (M7) phone but the lack of pogo-pin connectors was a disappointment; I lived with it but I do not like the daily wear on the micro USB connector.

I was further disappointed when you launched the One successor (M8) without it either. As a result, I'm willing to wait and see what your M9 offering brings - I can wait.

We know you can do it - your HTC Nexus One had the pogo pins for its docks but possibly, the lack of documentation over it was disappointing, even though it is somewhat trivial to reverse engineer.

Please reintroduce the pogo pins for charging and docks in your future phones.

Thanks,

Antony.


#HTC
#HTCOne

29 April 2014

Thought for the day:

Here is a thought for today:
People will try to use every feature of a product to be "cool".
Therefore, any build tool which permits circular dependencies is a broken tool.
What does the interwebs think?

24 April 2014

Internet and net-neutrality.

I think that the word, internet, should be restricted to mean networks which allow free and equal access for packets from other networks... As in an "inter-network network".
Networks which do not permit free and equal networks should be named for their controlling interest. So company owned and moderated networks, like Comcast, which limit bandwidth or filter content are not "internets" but are, in Comcast's case, Comcast's network which has a moderated gateway to the internet. Similarly, people in China or Turkey don't have internet service providers: they have "turknet" or "chinet" service providers which has a moderated gateway to the internet.
I think we do need to make this distinction so that users are not misled.

21 April 2014

I don't care for Gradle.

I could vote for GRADLE-2496 but to be honest, I don't like Gradle enough to create an account just to vote for this issue. Given that the bug was first reported in 2012, few others care enough, too.

Useless error messages

From the annuals of useless error messages:
Executed 0 tests: 0 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped.
Unexpected exception thrown.
:integration-test-impl -- Executed 0 tests: 0 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped.
:compileJava FAILED

11 April 2014

10 second thoughts: Gradle

In my opinion, Gradle is a bad idea, implemented poorly. It should never take dozens of gigabytes of RAM and many tens of minutes, just to load its config files and determine that the command asked was mistyped.

17 March 2014

H41-08U: Caravan of Ignorance

Amazing how people like to celebrate their stupidity and parade their ignorance as a virtue.

02 January 2014

colordiff trailing whitespace again

Why do I keep on having to do this?

I think I shall leave this version of the patch right here for future reference.

--- /usr/bin/colordiff 2010-06-01 12:47:41.000000000 -0700
+++ colordiff 2014-01-02 13:29:03.954751310 -0800
@@ -61,4 +61,5 @@
 my $diff_stuff = $colour{magenta};
 my $cvs_stuff  = $colour{darkyellow};
+my $trailing_whitespace = "\033[0;41m";
 
 # Locations for personal and system-wide colour configurations
@@ -311,4 +312,5 @@
 
 foreach (@inputstream) {
+    my $added_line = 0;
     if ($diff_type eq 'diff') {
         if (/^</) {
@@ -317,4 +319,5 @@
         elsif (/^>/) {
             print "$file_new";
+            $added_line = 1;
         }
         elsif (/^[0-9]/) {
@@ -337,4 +340,5 @@
         elsif (/^\+ /) {
             print "$file_new";
+            $added_line = 1;
         }
         elsif (/^\*{4,}/) {
@@ -379,4 +383,5 @@
         elsif (/^\+/) {
             print "$file_new";
+            $added_line = 1;
         }
         elsif (/^\@/) {
@@ -406,4 +411,5 @@
             elsif ($sepchars eq ' >') {
                 print "$file_new";
+                $added_line = 1;
             }
             else {
@@ -426,4 +432,5 @@
         $_ =~ s/(\{\+[^]]*?\+\})/$file_new$1$colour{off}/g;
     }
+    s/(\s+)$/$trailing_whitespace$1/ if $added_line;
     s/$/$colour{off}/;
     print "$_";

kthxbai!

01 January 2014

Goodbye 2013... Hello 2014.


That was one fast year... Zoom!
When it comes to personal objectives, not a particularly successful year.

Retrospective

As a courtesy, the link to last year's retrospective is right here.

As with last year, lets start with the notable flubs:

  • Failed to spend enough time to relearn the piano.
  • FOSS flubs - failed to get code out there and adopted.
  • Continued to fail to maintain fitness... I end this year at 211lbs vs last year's 206lbs.

As +Eric Idle says; always look at the bright side of life. There were a few very minor victories:
  • 400KHz I2C on Raspberry Pi to a PIC16 microcontroller slave.
  • Managed to test OQGraph3 with TokuDB on MariaDB.
  • Reduced by 20% the reading list backlog.
  • Did manage to get together for a few meetups with other Blizzard alumni.

Wish list for 2014

Obligatory wish-list for the new year which contains some duplicates from last year. As always, these aren't resolutions but wishy-washy objectives which may or may not be met, blah, blah...
Perhaps a little shorter list than last year.
  • Free and Open Source Software projects
    • Dedicate some hours to help polish OQGraph by March.
    • Split the WL#820 project into lots of separate commits.
  • Personal development:
    • This time, really do set aside some time to relearn the piano.
    • Complete at least one large project (electronics, pi, etc).
    • Organise the office, really! It's a dump!

tldr?

2013 was a forgettable year except for time with my daughter.

16 October 2013

Accurate notifications: 249,561,088 Invitations!

It's always nice when applications give notifications which are useful and informative. In this example, I present a picture of a terribly useful notification from the FaceBook app on an iPad mini...
#iPad #Facebook

29 September 2013

I like modern phones

I really do like our modern era of customisable smart phones... The HTC One is truly the best phone I have ever owned.

The point if this posting: The recent Android 4.3 upgrade also upgraded the system apps. This meant that it came bundled with Google Hangouts and Google Maps 7. Both of these apps are a UI nightmare and so, I have removed them and installed the older Google Talk 4.1.2 and Google Maps 6.14.4 apps.

Much nicer!

#HTCOne #Android

05 September 2013

Google Contacts UI fail

There is clearly enough room to not truncate the name if the name was shifted up.
#google #android #fail

The flute makers and the rebellious child.

I posted this text in a comment on Facebook. Perhaps I had heard it from somewhere or perhaps it is totally original. I don't know. I post this tiny story here for more people to enjoy:
Imagine a happy functioning society of flute makers, who spend their time toiling the fields, making beautiful flutes with intricate carved patterns and playing music which is a joy to listen to. However, they are all born blind but to them, this is completely normal.
One day, a child is born but she could see: She learned growing up to pretend to be as blind as her brethren but in her rebellious teens she decided she wanted to paint the colours she saw.
Such blasphemy! Colours! Her parents were so sad that they gave birth to such a deformed and mentally insane child that did not want to make flutes and play music but instead she wanted to paint imaginary "pictures" that no one can feel and she talked about "colour" nonsense that no one can hear. How does one hear the colour "red"?
The child was obviously insane.
However, the village elders know a cure. They can put out her "eyes", obviously a physical defect, and she would be just like everyone else: Normal.

01 September 2013

Battle for the post smart-watch era...


I was considering how there are many players in the space, with Google acquiring a player, Samsung about to launch a product, there is also Pebble, Sony already entrenched and even Apple looking like it's interested in playing.

One of the biggest criticisms I have seen with several reviews of products is over integration and battery life. Random neurons fired and I recall reading that there was already a fuel cell developed that could generate electricity from blood plasma.

So, here is the idea: A subcutaneous implant with an OLED display, a digital smart tattoo, fuelled by the wearer's blood, Bluetooth connectivity to a phone and maybe a bunch of medical applications, like monitoring blood glucose, etc.

03 August 2013

Twinkle, twinkle, little star...


While on FaceBook, I had encountered the following take on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and it didn't seem to flow right for me and didn't feel adequate, scientifically.

So I came up with the following variant:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star;
how I admire what you are!
Giant ball of incandescent gas,
Compressed under its own mass.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star;
how I admire what you are!

Glowing bright, nuclear fusion:
Hydrogen to helium, C-N-O!
Billions of years of fuel to burn
until the iron cools the core.
Red dwarf, white dwarf, Supernova!
Infinite universe, full of awe.

Twinkling star, far away:
Distorted by our own atmosphere.
Scientists with their adaptive optics,
study the night sky, beauty abound.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star;
Science tells us what you are.

I give it to the world under the following license:
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

24 July 2013

Modern electronics...

Modern electronics is so tedious to solder by hand. Here is a successful attempt to solder an extension to a microphone.

13 July 2013

Recording ideas

Being conscious of the weird ways that our minds work is a useful thing. One if the more interesting studies in recent years revealed that our minds scrub some information when passing through doorways. Recently, I have adopted the policy of not passing through a doorway if I am incubating a new idea and will try to record the idea before I leave the room. For this, I have found that the Google Keep app is really quite useful.

10 June 2013

Apple Yawn.

Apple iButt Yawn! Didn't their old Dot-mac, MobileMe do this years ago?


20 May 2013

A tale of two Pis

Since I have two different Raspberry Pis, both model B but one is made in China, the other is made in the UK, I may as well post a picture of them side by side.

11 May 2013

HTC One charging oddity

This is mostly just a post for my personal reference:
After mucking around with the phone, plugging in and unplugging things from its USB port, the port may suddenly stop working and the phone won't even initiate charging when the charger is plugged in. Soft reboots or soft power-down/power-up doesn't appear to fix it and the phone won't appear when plugged into a computer's USB port.
The solution is somewhat simple: Force a hard reboot by holding down the power button for 10 seconds. The following reboot, it appears to work again.

01 January 2013

Goodbye 2012. Hello 2013.


It's that time of year again: Reflect on the year's successes and flubs... Of which some were "resolutions" and some were merely wish-list items.

Notable flubs:

  • Practically all work-related items were flubs but there again, I didn't seriously expect Blizzard to give me the "pink slip".
  • Most FOSS project items were flubs but there again, changing job and relocating puts a serious crimp on one's free time.
  • Failed to maintain the fitness improvement - Finished 2010 at 235lbs, 2011 at 198lbs and I'm finishing 2012 at 206lbs. Could be worse, I suppose.
Hard pressed to think of any real successes which were on the 2012 list. There are a few work successes at my job at +LinkedIn but they don't count because this time last year, I was only a user of their site.


Anyways, on to non-work wish-list for 2013... Not solid resolutions because, meh.

  • Would be nice to get back to under 200lbs again.
  • I am going to make time for Free and Open Source projects:
    • OQGraph for MariaDB
      • Cleanup the v3 work
      • Get it merged into trunk.
    • External Stored Procedures for MariaDB
      • Cleanup the current work.
      • Include the proof-of-concept work to split the parser so that the stored procedure parser is plugable.
      • Get it merged into trunk.
    • Playing with Raspberry Pi
      • I plan to outfit my Pi with more IO using cheap PIC16 parts and make all the source and schematics open.
      • I want to make a small bipedal robot, powered by a Pi or two.
      • Is it possible to use I2C as a Transport for NDBCluster?
  • Just for fun:
    • Participate in more get togethers with other Blizzard alumni who are now in the SF Bay area.
  • Personal development:
    • I'm planning to relearn the piano.
    • Read more books. I have a backlog of books, including fiction books, that I want to read.
    • Eventually get my home office organised.
I'll see where it leads...

03 March 2011

Test post

Testing posting from Google's Blogger app while waiting at allergist's

11 December 2009

free gas at corner of collins ave and eckhoff st ... near gene audry jct off I5. 3600psig CNG today only!

17 July 2009

Things to do...

Need to stop procrastinating and to create a VM image of my ol' trusty OS/2 machine, especially as it appears that the venerable Tyan Tomcat PentiumMMX motherboard has finally stopped working. Maybe I could try swapping the CPUs or something or there is the Intel OR840 PentiumIII motherboard floating around... The only real problem is that the old case is a AT Medium Tower and the OR840 is an ATX motherboard, so there is the issue of PSU incompatibility too.

31 May 2009

An idea to increase power/efficiency of a Natural Gas (CH4) Internal Combustion Engine (ICE).

While I was driving to In-N-Out, earlier today, an idea struck me as to how to improve the performance of a Natural Gas powered Internal Combustion Engine...

Essentially, the waste gases of a natural gas engine is water vapor and carbon dioxide with trace amounts of other pollutants.
A major waste product of the engine is heat, especially excess heat in the exhaust gasses. What do I define as excess heat in the exhaust? Quite simply it is heat above the point required to keep the water content of the exhaust in its vapor phase. At standard atmospheric pressure, it would be 100ºC. With an engine with a 12:1 compression ratio, this temperature would be at least 182ºC, plus a bit more for the motive power of the engine - so lets say around 200ºC.

The exhaust gases could be condensed to form mildly acidic but otherwise pure water. This water could be warmed by the engine's cooling system up to equal the temperature of the engine block, which would be a little under 100ºC. At the point of the engine cycle just after the intake valves close at roughly the point where compression begins, a small amount of this warmed water could be injected as a fine aerosol spray. The subsequent combustion of the natural gas could provide enough energy to also change the injected water into its vapor phase, increasing the post-combustion pressure within the engine, providing more motive power.

The key thing to do would be to monitor the temperature of the exhaust from the engine to ensure that there is excess heat within the system to vaporise the injected water so that the water is not injected at a time when there is insufficient energy to support it as it would likely result in reduced engine performance.

How well would this perform? Well, to be honest, I have not run any detailed numbers but I don't think it would be too far fetched to imagine this improving power by as much as 10%, maybe even significantly more. Increased performance would mean less time spent accelerating and perhaps less fuel to maintain steady velocity which both would mean significant gains in fuel efficiency.

What other uses for the condensed water can I think of? Perhaps some form of evaporative cooling system for the intake air? Another idea to entertain.

If only I had the time to play...

22 May 2009

At the Shoreline Amptheatre in Mountain View, almost at work but since it is a vacation day...

21 May 2009

I think I am beginning to get an idea what being a "groupie" feels like. Following NIN through California

08 May 2009

Verizon has awful customer service!

As anyone who has had to call Verizon can probably attest to ...

VERIZON CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS.

And for a phone company, the call quality of their customer service sucks -- as they transfer you from one call centre to another, the voice quality gets progressively worse and worse.

Perhaps the poor line call quality is intentional - so that after an hour and being bounced from one call centre to another, you're forced to disconnect and try again because everything becomes unintelligible.

Even though you enter in your "BTN" number, you get sent to a call centre on the other side of the country just to be sent back...

I am so tempted to just cancel.

22 January 2009

W the hell is "Cyberinfrastructure"
(aka I expected better from the IEEE Computer Society Magazine)

We live in a strange era of "tubes", "Engrish" and "Yet Another Invented Word Misusing Word Stems".

What is the subject of my wrath? Quite simple really.... The use of the prefix "cyber-" to mean "The Inter-Network".

Cyber-this... Cyber-that... What a load of rubbish. It is diluting the real meaning of Cybernetics, which is the science of feedback and control engineering.

And this rubbish word "Cyberinfrastructure", as seen at the top of page 40 of the January 2009 edition of the IEEE Computer Society magazine "Computer", is a case of a few people wanting to sound "smarter" by abusing a word used in science and engineering.

To me, they have just made themselves sound less educated.
Instead of the abomnation "cyberinfrastructure", why not use "network infrastructure" or "data grid".

Bah!

You may choose to blame my rant on the fact that I have a degree in Cybernetics.

15 January 2009

Random thought

With how often I use the CDROM drive in a laptop, I wouldn't mind if they went away completely. I think my next personal laptop will not have such low-density storage built in but only as an external device. That freed space could be used for other stuff such as more battery or even to reduce the overall bulk of the machine.

Makes something like the MacBook Air a tempting choice for the future: 2010 is the year when I will replace my personal laptop.

(Katie would disagree: She uses her laptop as a personal DVD player)

23 December 2008

Actually, it very good and tasty dogfood!

In response to the Slashdot article: As Christmas Bonus, Google Hands Out "Dogfood"... A small number of people have expressed displeasure at only getting a G1 smartphone as a bonus.

Personally, I am very happy to receive the dev G1 phone... It wasn't something I would have purchased for myself (tough economic times ahead yadda yadda yadda) nor was it something that I would have asked anyone else to get for me. It gives me the opportunity to play with it and maybe develop a few stupid little applications, just for fun: It will be a much appreciated toy for Christmas.

Will it replace my old phone? Don't know yet. It is a lot bulkier than my Samsung Trace. For now, I'm giving it a test-drive.

In any case, this is the most valuable Christmas bonus that I have received in recent years - so I kinda feel that anyone complaining about it are kinda being ungrateful. I am used to getting perhaps a company-branded backpack, shot glass, towel or USB pen drive as a Christmas bonus from my previous employer so this phone gift is positively extravagant by comparison. Even considering that I occasionally worked long hours and was key in developing a few features which formed the foundation of my then-CEO's promise, I appreciated the small token gifts and I still enjoy using them today.

I never expected, nor did I ever receive, a large bonus from my previous employer.
I never expected any bonus from Google this year, especially considering the current economy.

Just my 2c opinion..

07 October 2008

Bumper sticker

While driving to work, listening to "Capital G", I was thinking that the following car bumper sticker would be just perfect:

07 September 2008

Nine Inch Nails

The concert was great. The 10 second review: The Oakland event at the Oracle Arena had better sound quality, I think the concrete metal and plastic of the Forum in Inglewood echoed a bit and dulled the sound. However, we had better seats at the forum and the set was slightly better I think...

25 August 2008

The cost of Natural Gas


It is quite amusing sometimes to look at official statistics: 4 times more natural gas is lost in storage and in the natural gas pipe network than is used for transportation.
This means that they (Sempra etc) could in theory sell natural gas for use in transportation for free and write it off as 20% increase in network storage losses.
However, the cost of fuel to owners of natural gas vehicles in California is up to 3 times higher than the cost of fuel to vehicle owners in Utah. Given that the wholesale price of natural gas is prroximately $9.03 per 1000 cu.ft. and the retail price to CNG vehicle owners in California is around $2.89 / gge (1 gge = 127.77 cu.ft.), then the natural gas companies have a profit margin of approximately 150%. If California is really serious about reducing pollution, natural gas vehicles needs to be encouraged since natural gas is the source fuel used by all hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, whether the natural gas is cracked in a converter at home, within the vehicle itself (natural gas fuel cell) or done industrially at the filling station. Price gouging by the natural gas suppliers needs to stop - CNG vehicle owners should not have to have a home filling station fitted just to avoid the inflated prices at the filling stations.

20 August 2008

There can be a whole new service industry,

Here is an interesting business idea which maybe someone can run with and exploit:
For a nominal fee, perhaps $5-$10 per week, a company can provide a junk call phone screening service. Here is the details:
  • A FXO/FXS device is plugged into your PC which is wired to the internet.
  • The phone line from customer's phone service plugs into the PC.
  • All the home phones are connected to the PC.
  • Outgoing calls are unhindered... The service may optionally route the call through cheapest path.
  • VOIP-based phone services, such as Vonage, can skip some of the above.
  • An incoming call which matches customer-supplied list of phone numbers causes home phones to ring.
  • All other incoming calls are immediately picked up by the computer.
  • If it sounds like a FAX, receive it and store on hard drive.
  • Otherwise, call is routed to phone-screening operator, perhaps in India or wherever is cheap.
  • If caller can identify themselves, matching supplied list (such as credit card account number), the call may be forwarded to the customer's home phones or a pre-recorded message can be played back at the caller.
  • Forwarding services can be provided for extra $$ subscription... No need to miss an important call. Forward to a VOIP target, or a cellphone perhaps...
  • All received non-personal calls can be recorded. The operator will notify the caller immediately after answering the call.
  • The audio file will be stored (long term) on the customer's PC.
  • Short-term audio retrieval would be available online from the service's web site.
  • All received calls, (CID details, date, time, duration) are logged/archived on customer's PC.
  • Recent calls list may be viewed online.

Now, wouldn't it be funny when a Telemarketer from India is received by an operator in India, and you never need be bothered by a phone call in the middle of the night?

03 July 2008

Call came through.

Well... I predicted that it would happen back in 2006... I said that Microsoft will change to a subscription model within the next two years and here is the announcement!

Cannot say that I am surprised.

16 June 2008

Speculations

Some people have asked me of what I think lies ahead... so instead of having to remember what I have told who... here are my wild speculations.

My opinions and speculations:

  • We will see $5/gallon during 3Q08.
  • Federal Reserve base interest rates will rise by 0.5% before end of FY08
  • Residential property prices will bottom out during 4Q08.

02 April 2008

MSOOXML has been made an ISO Standard,

Of course, the challenge is to now produce a OOXML document which conforms to the now ratified standard which is capable of thoroughly crashing implementors of OOXML readers, including MS Office, and to create such a document which to fix the problem would require breaking away from the published specification and rendering documents in an incompatible manner.

Given the penchant for largely undocumented binary globs in the file, I should imagine that this should be possible - because by the nature of being undocumented, they are not part of the standard so a document which has an 'invalid' binary glob would still be conforming to the OOXML standard.

Anyways, it is not a disaster - I am sure that there must be plenty of ISO standards which are defunct or rarely used because they are irrelevant or unimplementable. OOXML is likely to become another one. Where people fail to specify exactly which ISO document standard, that is their own problem. Supporters of ODF should continue doing what they were doing - refining their specification and making it good and stop wasting time trying to berate their competitor.

Besides, now you have an easy way to tell PHBs about what each of the two standards are about:

When archiving legacy documents, use ISO/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology – Office Open XML.

For all new documents, use ISO/IEC 26300 Information technology - Open Document Format.

22 March 2008

I now have Time!

Well, it is done.

I am now officially a jobless lazy bum. On the plus side - I now have time!

Time to think about relaxing properly. Time to read one of those dozens of books I never seemed to have time for.

There are a few things I need to do - but there is no work stress or pressure. This weekend will be the first in years where I have no deadlines to think about. Okay - I did have a couple of deadlines but they don't matter anymore.

Important things have happened - Iain M Banks has published a new Culture novel: Matter. I plan to read it this coming week... but not too fast - I shall wait until I have a nice open slot for that activity so I can enjoy his work fully.

10 March 2008

"Chick-Kut-Teh"

Wonderful news: The nearby 99 Ranch Market now stocks the Bah Kut Teh kit near their section for Indonesian foods. No longer do I have to travel to San Francisco's Chinatown just to purchase Bah Kut Teh spices..

This evening, I prepared it using about 2 lbs of chicken with some baby carrots and sliced white onions thrown in near the end (the two vegetables which Katie readily eats). Served with steamed Jasmine rice. Perfect.

Of course, the best is yet to come... Tomorrow, it would taste even better!

26 February 2008

Early morning activity...

Waking up and then moving a whole bunch of stuff is not an ideal way to start the day. It's not even 8:30am and I feel tired. At least everything is operational again, For a number of hours from yesterday afternoon, we were essentially offline with not even the house phone nor DSL connected.

Used the opportunity to vacuum the cooler fins inside the Quad G5 - it was truely impressive how much dirt had collected there - amazing that the machine did not suffer badly from overheating problems.

05 February 2008

The sorry state of computing literature

While I was browsing a Borders yesterday evening, a revelation came upon me as to an analogy for the computer book situation:

Imagine in a bookshop that there is a "Food" section where there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books, all quite clearly divided into sections:
  • How to eat Pizza
  • How to eat quiche
  • How to eat soup
  • Serving food
  • Table settings
  • The Art of Plating
  • Slicing Turkey
  • Serving Pie
  • Reheating Dinners

Dozens of sections about food... yet none of them actually tell you how to make anything. No ingredients. No recipes.

That is the state of the majority of computer books and computing magazines today.

14 November 2007

Tower of Hanoi

Moving stuff around or even preparing to move stuff around is all hard work - especially when space is limited. Preparing stuff for my new home office and getting things ready... Soon the rest of the furniture and stuff will be ordered. I hope that it would all be done by Christmas.
My arms are aching though.

05 November 2007

Leopard Spaces...

I wish that Spaces can use multiple displays ... Having all the 'thumbnails' only on the primary display makes them small and unintelligible.

02 November 2007

Book browsing

I went to Borders this evening after work and while I was there, I browsed some books ... My interest today was looking at different scripting languages (yeah computer books, how predicable of me). Had a look at the books on Python and Ruby - It's amazing that none of them are thread safe which makes it impractical for some of the stuff I want to do.
*sighs*
So I purchased a Terry Pratchett book. I much prefer the artwork on his UK books than the artwork over here.

30 October 2007

Time Machine

Looks like Apple's "Time Machine" feature can be made to work with a non-Apple fileserver. From the helpful hint at the following URL, I now have it working to my fileserver, a FreeBSD machine with netatalk... http://blog.danielparnell.com/?p=43
Now... I just need some more storage space...

29 October 2007

Leopard is a bit spotty

It appears that the formerly excellent X11 support in Tiger has regressed and the X11 support in Leopard, despite being based upon the more modern Xorg codebase, shows significant regression in functionality.
  1. Unable to move windows on to secondary displays

  2. Unable to be configured to use TCP connections, except by manual startup (Do we really need multiple Xquartz processes?)

  3. DPI is fubar - I prefer to set 75DPI even though I have large displays - I have large displays because I want more stuff on the screen!

  4. Display feels slower.

Some of the other new features are nice - the new SSH AskPasswd program is a nice new touch but I think I shall just have to bite the bullet and 'upgrade' to the Tiger X11 release. I shall be following the instructions detailed at http://aaroniba.net/articles/x11-leopard.html

28 October 2007

Leopard's CUPS defaults

Mac OS 10.5 was not discovering my CUPS printers like how 10.4 was. It turns out that Apple has decided to only discover printers by Bonjour only and has turned off CUPS own detection. This seems like a poor decision.
I found the answer at http://mcdevzone.com/2007/10/28/printer-fix-for-leopard

27 October 2007

Leopard Review

Here is my not-very-objective review of MacOS 10.5 aka Leopard.
Installation was pretty painless - I uninstalled things like APE beforehand and after reading the various blogs where people had hanging installs, I am sure glad that I did take the precaution. It feels faster on my Quad-G5 PowerMac - things seem to respond faster. Visually - I'm going to have to change the default background - some of the annoying artifacts on the menu bar are from the background image. The work done to Mail - is excellent. Much improved responsiveness. The iChat improvements are very welcome - it can now be signed-in on multiple accounts.
I have not managed to get Time Machine working from using a FreeBSD fileserver, even when I have netatalk installed and operational - There has been some skectchy reports of workarounds but its not working here. I really don't want to have an external drive for each Mac for backup - I would prefer to be able to back them up centrally over the network.
With respect to software development - time will tell. There is already some indication that the assembler/linker may have some problems with some inline PowerPC assembler which prevents the build of the glib macport from completing successfully.

26 October 2007

Mac OS X Leopard has arrived

Actually, the small box arrived about an hour ago. Clearing some old work source repositories from my hard drive and other general 'housekeeping' duties. I haven't eagerly anticipated a new OS release for a long time: I would probably compare this to the time when OS/2 2.1 was released with its full 32bit Presentation Manager or perhaps even OS/2 Warp 3 with its UI enhancements... As to what features I am looking forward to exploiting, I would say in no particular order: Spaces, XCode, DTrace, Shark. There is a bunch of other 'nice to have' features... I guess I will see how well I like it after I install it.

24 October 2007

We can smell the smoke from here.

All throughout today and yesterday, there has been ash falling from the sky from all the fires around near Los Angeles. We have had all the windows closed to keep the dust and ash out - going outside for a short while irritates my eyes something awful and that is even though I take a powerful anti-allergy medicine daily.

17 September 2007

Today we lean that Microsoft has lost it's appeal regarding their monopolistic practices in Europe. I foretell that Microsoft will continue with business as usual and otherwise completely disregard the ruling and the penalties. So, they may pay the fiscal part of the penalties but the rest of it will have to wait for Satan to get a new job as a snow-plough driver in hell.
What can be done about it? Quite simple. It is within the EU's power to void Microsoft's copyrights, patents, trademarks and all other intellectual property in Europe.
Radical, yes. But it would also serve as a warning for all other companies that they are not above the law. Europe is a big market for Microsoft ... bigger than their American market.
I doubt that would ever happen but it doesn't hurt to dream.

14 September 2007

Time to morn the passing of an old friend. My old Pentium 200MMX (SMP 2 Processor) machine would not start up today. The PSU is fine - the DPT SCSI controller can be heard to spin up the hard drives but to no avail - the CPUs failed to start up. No POST beep codes, nothing. No activity.

*sighs*

It was a trusty workhorse, from 1997 to 2007.

Only one question plagues me.... What machine should I butcher in order to have a working OS/2 machine or do I wait until eComStation goes GA and buy a modern machine?

06 September 2007

I am not happy. As to why I am not happy, lets consider a hypothetical situation: Imagine you have purchased a new computer and while it was in warranty, it kept crashing and working slow. The manufacturer of the computer thinks that the CPU may be a little faulty so they want you, the end user, to take out the CPU and ship it to Intel for diagnostics. And while you are at it, maybe you should send the video card to Nvidia, just in case.
Would you accept that kind of situation? I doubt it. You purchased the computer whole and complete from one vendor, you do not expect to go to the suppliers of the computer's vendor in order to have it fixed. You'd think it to be unacceptable... What if there was a faulty diode on the motherboard... Would your PC vendor expect you to go to IR for a replacement diode?
Ugh!

Anyways.... Our car has been having problems. It isn't even two years old yet but it has already spent about two months sitting at a Saturn dealership. It has had 3 steering columns replaced. 2 drive wheel bearings. a transmission control modules and an engine management module ... and thats only the expensive parts. Now, we have had the driver's side front drive tyre blow out two times in as many months: Both times, the tyre failed in an identical fashion. Now we (the end user) must send the tyre to the manufacturer to be examined for defects... The first tyre came with the vehicle, the second was purchased from a Saturn dealer.. ie. Both failed tyres came to us via Saturn. WHY DO WE HAVE TO TAKE THE TYRE TO THE MANUFACTURER? Absolutely non-existent customer service: They should be bending over backwards for us, especially when you consider the entire catalogue of faults that this vehicle has had to date.

I am not a happy Saturn customer.
I cannot in good consciousness recommend anyone else to buy a Saturn vehicle.

I wish I had purchased a Volkswagen.

05 September 2007

Something seems a bit fishy in Redmond Land.... As many people who know me know, I don't use Windows that often but I do mostly for my work and I'm typically using Visual Studio C++. Only yesterday, I fired up Windows XP and after a couple of hours of use, up popped up the dialog for installing updates. I simply closed what I was doing and let the updates occur.
Windows XP rebooted and I began to use it but when I copied files over the network, I had a nagging feeling that the performance wasn't quite up to par.
Today, I have tried transferring larger files and I notice that it appears to stall frequently while performing the file transfer. So I started "ping -t" ... and wouldn't you know, this machine which used to have no problems is now dropping about 1 in 10 packets over my fully switched network. Just in case it was a faulty port on the switch, I changed the port and ethernet cable. No change.
Is this some sinister plot to make Vista "better" by crippling older XP installations?
In any case, it is stupid - and dropping that many packets causes a lot of problems. I cannot believe that everyone are experiencing this or else there would be a worldwide outcry - a revolt. Perhaps its just a coincidence that the network card is now faulty but it's a bit awkward to resolve as the NIC is the on-board integrated port on a laptop. I guess I will have to try with a PC Card device and see if that rectifies it.

29 August 2007

I was wondering around a superstore the other evening when the black Windows Vista box caught my eye... It says there, right under where "Windows Vista Ultimate" is written, "The most complete Windows ever" or something like that.
What I would like to know is.... Why would anyone want an incomplete operating system? I don't care if it is the "most complete". I want an operating system which is "complete".
Still, I have to admit that the most expensive software purchases I have personally paid for in the past couple of years has been 2 retail boxes of Windows XP Professional. Of all the people I know personally who have tried Windows Vista (usually bundled with their computers), almost all of them have either purchased Windows XP or have somehow acquired a DVD. One person even considers installing XP Home an upgrade over the bundled Vista Home Premium. For all of Windows XP's flaws, it never drove people to install Windows ME. I have to confess that I haven't actually used Vista long enough to be as frustrated with it as those people but to be perfectly frank, Windows XP Pro does everything I need out of an OS when I need to use it.
There are a few new pieces of software which I will purchase in the near future when they are released: Mac OS 10.5 which I will probably buy the family pack and the expensive one: eComStation 2.0 - partly for nostalgia's sake but I also have a unopened, still in shrink wrap, Hopkins FBI for OS/2 which I have been thinking about trying for the past couple of years.

20 August 2007

It looks like Kingston Technology is serious about their Lifetime Warranty on their products. A little under a week has passed since I had sent them the memory which had gone faulty - and it didn't cost me a penny. They paid for the FedEx shipping both ways. The replacement module looks a little different than the returned and the new modules I had purchased immediately after the failure: They all had identical track layout unlike the replacements. It all seems to work though. The machine has correctly identified the modules and so now it has 4.5G RAM.
On a little side note - I tried to post this message earlier today but the Google Blogger site appeared to be down for maintenance.

07 August 2007

Yay, the new memory arrived. I am glad that I didn't splash out and only paid for the standard delivery - it arrived next day. The machine was getting a little slow without the memory even with a lighter workload than normal - the swap had grown to 1.5Gb after a day's use. I still need to get a RMA for the old memory so I can send it back for replacement...

05 August 2007

Oh Joy.... The past few days, my Mac started crashing randomly, usually just applications or a MySQL test run would show that the server SIGSEGV. Quite annoying. Today, it locked up complely. Not even the mouse cursor could move and it didn't even show the MacOS kernel panic message. So enough was enough. I found the MacOS install CD and started the Apple Hardware Test. Kicked off the extended test and wandered away to do other stuff. When I came back, I was greeted with a message that the memory was faulty:

2MEM/1/4:DIMM3/J7000

It's well beyond the Fry's 30day replacement but definitely less than a year... so I will have to call Kingston on Monday for a RMA number for it. Meanwhile, I'll order some replacement memory so that the machine won't be crippled for too long... besides which, when the replacement memory comes back, I will have a bit more memory to do stuff with.

05 July 2007

Yay! The new motherboard, CPU, RAM and PSU are npw installed into my home fileserver. Booting up and running straight after the major upgrade without a hitch, very nice how seamless FreeBSD makes the transition but there again, I expected that to be problem free. Sitting on my desk is the old motherboard, an Intel OR840 with a Pentium 3 800MHz processor: A real oddity by todays standards as the CPU is a Slot-A module and the RAM is RamBus 800 modules. There is a spare slot for a second CPU which is only populated by the termination card... as are half the RAM slots. Tempting to try to find a second CPU and perhaps I will splurge and buy eComStation to run on this odd motherboard. At least now, I will be able to update FreeBSD on the fileserver without worrying about carefully reapplying patches to allow FreeBSD to work without problems on the OR840.

03 July 2007

Just when I was somewhat enthusiastic about swapping over my fileserver motherboard, I discover that my power supply is too ancient to support the new motherboard. Ho hum. So I have ordered a new PSU and it should arrive on the 5th. I was hoping to be able to do the swap during a day-off so theres minimal interruption.

28 June 2007

Server upgrade imminent. I have purchased a new motherboard, CPU and RAM to replace the aging Pentium 3 + OR840 combo with 128MB RamBus RAM I am currently using in the server. The new motherboard is a SuperMicro PDSGE and will have a Pentium 4 650 and 1Gb of RAM. I am probably not going to use the new motherboard's on-board gigabit ethernet adaptor because of concerns about Intel's AMT technologies.... Heck, I may just place the AMD PC/Net PCI adaptor for the outward facing interface (Yes, that is the same adaptor I 'cloned' when I wrote my AMD PC/Net PCI emulation for QEmu which is incidentially also used by Xen when performing machine emulation). I may just use the on-board gigabit NIC for a direct crossover link to the Mac for fast jumbo frames. Meanwhile, I just have to make sure that I have everything - Likely to need a new PSU to power the motherboard. Will probably need a few new case fan, good practice to replace them anyways for a machine which practically stays on 24 hours a day.

13 June 2007

Every now and again, I have to have a large sigh...


*** sighs ***


With the recent release from Perdue detailing a computer simulation of the 9/11 WTC attack, the fierce debates that it spawns as to the "It's an inside job" vs. "No it's not," camps and their arguments miss the point of the simulation.
I have looked at the short video clip and I would say that it seems plausible: I could imagine a aeroplane causing that kind of damage. It is also clear to me that the damage rendered to the core columns is inadequate to cause a complete structural failure of the whole building, especially considering that the aeroplanes hit quite high up on the building. There was relatively little load being supported by the core columns at that level.
Of course, the "Terrorists hate us" camp would trot out the argument that steel only needs to be heated up to half it's melting temperature in order to begin to warp and fail. Given that the buildings were hit some 400m above ground level, assuming that there was enough fuel burning to heat the core columns via radiation, and assuming that 100% of the radiation was absorbed with no radiative losses... for that heat to propagate down the core columns such that all the columns were heated sufficiently that a cascade "pancake" collapse would occur, hmm... after some scribblings on a back of a napkin.... assuming a rather light core column at an average cross section of .34 sq m per column... it would take as much energy as released in 18 million pounds of TNT to raise all the core columns to 800 degrees Celsius... Or expressed as a speed of a 747 aeroplane if translated into kinetic energy - about the same as if it was traveling at around 10,000 miles per hour.

Pretty fast, innit?

Oh well... People never let facts bother their perception of the world. Unfortunately, they let any idiot vote nowadays.

31 May 2007

This is amusing... Ok, perhaps ironic, also prophetic... But quite definitely amusing.
Apologies to all those people who have seen it in March but here is the link:
George Orwell's former house surrounded by 32 CCTV cameras, all within 200 yards.

22 May 2007

Delayed posting, originally for Monday 16 April, 2007

So much has happened during th past week but due to the happenings, I have not been able to post any news.
Easter Sunday at around 3:30am, my mother in law suffered a severe heart attack. She passed away early on Tuesday at about 4:30am. These events were completly unexpected due to the full exam she had a month ago and of her mere hours before the heart attack. We held her funeral and burial on Friday. There was quite a good turnout.

18 April 2007

Now that Google has migrated Blogger to some new-fangled system, I can no longer write blog entries in my comfortable way - on my Palm organizer using Plogit whilst offline.
Pah!

29 March 2007

Morons from Saturn... Sounds like a B film title but it is the reality of the total idiots at a certain car dealership in Cerritos. I would wager that the employees of their service department are completely unable to tell their ass from their elbows without the aid of a working diagnostic computer... Except that they are unable o READ or THINK in order to plug the wires in. As people would say in England... What a load of Plonkers.
Just realized that I haven't posted anything to the blog in a while and I had an old unposted entry in my Palm. This morning, I am having to bring the car to its service.
Funny how the optimism of what airlines tell their customers know no bounds. Here I am writing this entry and its already 6 minutes past the ticketed boarding time and there is still no aeroplane at the gate, yet they have only just changed status from 'on time' to 'delayed 20 minutes'. This is dispite the fact that the aeroplane is still in the air with passengers on its way here.
Kind of like trains in the UK.

08 March 2007

Stuck in rainy Seattle. Yes, it did rain for a while earlier. I listened to it hitting the roof and windows. I still hear a few spots now.
I am returning back to Los Angeles today. It was nice to work and chat with Bran but I do miss Katie... and the messed up cat Sweety.
Here is a random thought which just struck me: Freedom is having a wide range of choices available and not having to make a decision.

23 February 2007

It is somewhat facinating that Americans will debate the British origins of many English phrases without ever consulting an Englishman.
A case in point: The debate on the origin of the phase "Rule of Thumb" which people parrot as being a part of British Common Law permitting husbands to beat their wives, which is then used as an explanation as to why it is not written down. A few problems: English Common Law is written down as it utilises past precedent and that the earlist reference to "Rule of Thumb" as an defense for beating a wife in a case near the beginning of the 20th century. The best explanation is this: The phrase has its origins in the textile industry as a way to measure fabrics. Half the circumference of the thumb does approximate an inch. It was well established as a phrase when the English went to the New World. In the Americas, some pious preacher then invented the concept that it was ok to discpline an errant wife whereupon it entered into American folklore. That concept was then exported back to Britian at the turn of the 20th century through literature and by US servicemen who served in Europe.
Another thing which does irk me some is the ancient nursery rhyme which Americans know as "Ring around a Rosie". Here is the version I learnt as a child:
Ring-a-ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies,
ah-tishoo, ah-tishoo (like sneezing)
We all fall down

It is popular to attribute this rhyme as related to the Black Plague... However another interpretation which is not concidered much is the ancient pre-Christian practice of dancing around the maypole, which is an ancient fertility ritual.
Isn't history so much fun?

05 February 2007

I was browsing cnet's news and I noticed that they posted some photos of the Collosus rebuild project. In the blurb, they failed to mention that the British had built several more of them for redundancy and increase throughput... and of course each later one carried improvements from the previous. If you're ever near Milton Keynes, it is worth spending a day at Bletchley Park. There is a computer museum there which has many working old computers, including an IBM PC model 5150, similar to the first PC that I owned. The Sinclair ZX-81 doesn't count as that belonged to my dad.

30 January 2007

27 January 2007

So many projects I am iching to do, so little free time. I still believe my idea or a MySQL storage engine is viable. My ideas for an alternative computing platform. The OS/2 clone system. So little time.

23 January 2007

Yet another root canal... Hopefully the last. This didn't go too badly but that is hindsight: I hate injections and the sounds and smell of metal cutting in to teeth completely fails to fill me with joy. I have a couple more check-ups in the future: With luck, they should now be uneventful.

19 January 2007

The Apple Tech Talk was interesting... chatted with a few interesting people. I think that I should talk to Calvin to take advantage of some opportunities Leopard can give MySQL... Couldn't stay for the "Cheese and Wine" reception as the last Metro home departs Union Station at 6:30pm.
It is 8am. Funny thing... I have been living here for over 15 months and today will be the first time I venture into LA alone and I am travelling by train.

15 January 2007

UPS delivery drivers here are complete and utter MORONS! Actually, thats insuling to the common moron. Look at the box: Three large symbols, first one means "this way up", the second one means "fragile", the third means "keep dry". Yet this delivery man throws the box from his cab onto the front door step - a clear 15ft that the box, which contains a replacement hard drive from Seagate, is airborne! That does not fit my definition of careful handling. And UPS has no easy way to lodge a complaint about mishandled packages on their web site - as if they hope that no one will complain. Wankers, the whole lot of them!

07 January 2007

This device looks like a nifty toy. Pity I don't have much time for toys.
Seems as if there is a bug going around ... Not the computer kind... It seems as if I have caught it and I am not feeling so great.

03 January 2007

The car did have a defective bearing. It has been replaced for no charge. Thank goodness for warranties! And while on the topic of warranties: The faulty hard drive was sent to Seagate today. Sad to note that if I buy a Maxtor drive now, it will be the third time I have purchased a Seagate drive. The first was an ST-225 and the second was something like a ST-364A...

02 January 2007

Chaos reigns supreme! For the second time in as many months our car, a 2006 Saturn Ion Coupe, is in for repair except that this time, not only is the power steering dodgy but it appears that the front left drive wheel bearing is failing! Less than 20,000 miles and only 16 months old.
Renting a car at Enterprise Rent a Car...

31 December 2006

Time to plan my New Year's Resolutions... All kind of things I'd like to have there but I think I should limit myself to a few achieveable objectives.
I would like to see Katie and myself move into an apartment...
I would like to get the WarpBSD/Nemesys project off the ground (now that would be something! It's been in planning stage for 10 years now.)
and many many more,,
And while I am here... How come I can visualise a product I would like to buy for Katie - and such a product not exist? I'm referring to the bluetooth/ipod car adaptor I have been looking for about 6 months now. It's simple really... It plugs into the car cigarette lighter, it charges the iPod, it plugs into car's aux audio input, it has a microphone, when a cell call comes in, it pauses the music and uses the car's stereo and its own mic as a hands free car phone solution. The technology certainly exists. Why is it not available?

22 December 2006

A hard drive failed in the evening. Fortunately it's in a RAID set so nothing was lost. Funny that it was the very drive I expected to fail first and I have already purchased a spare. I guess that I should make some effort to erase the old drive before I return it to Fry's for a repacement.

08 December 2006

It has been a very long time since the last blog posting. Must try to post reguarly.