Older blog entries for Phoon (starting at number 88)

17 Sep 2001 (updated 17 Sep 2001 at 07:56 UTC) »
Night/Morning. (3 AM EDT, 17 Sep 2001)

history through music

o/~
The blind men shout, "Let the creatures out,
We'll show the unbelievers"
The napalm screams of human flames
Of a prime time Belsen feast, yeah
As the reasons for the carnage
Cut their meat and lick the gravy,
We oil the jaws of the war machine
And feed it with our babies...
o/~
(Iron Maiden, "2 Minutes to Midnight")
jingoism
As far as "jingoism" goes, remember that not all patriotism is jingoism. I know that the US doesn't exactly have a lily-white history, but I think it's important to rally behind the flag. I also think it's important to "hit back so hard as to make teeth rattle around the world".

Fred Reed makes perfect sense in that article. The terrorists won for the same reason we lost in Vietnam: we're helpless if we can't figure out what to hit. Granted, when we do find a target, we utterly obliterate it, but until we find it, we're dead in the water.

I do disagree on one point. I think we should find out who is responsible, and not just fabricate evidence. However, if what the US Government says is true, we should turn Afghanistan into a US colony, and quick.

BTW, compiler, I realize that this situation isn't exactly the same as that which existed during the Vietnam conflict. The problem of identifying the enemy, however, still exists. Viet Cong members looked (look?) exactly the same as the peaceful population of Vietnam. Al Qaeda members look exactly the same as the peaceful population of Afghanistan.

This is why the US military must be careful to hit the correct targets; but once they're sure, they should turn the Al Qaeda camps into smoking craters.

cd-r smell
As I opened my CD-R spindle today, I noticed a strange, acrid smell coming from the case. In addition, the edges of each CD had what looked like dripped plastic, although I can't tell if it was there since the CDs were manufactured, or if they were recent.

I've placed the CDs in cases and put them in a shaded location, to prevent any future damage. I don't remember any direct sunlight hitting them, though... my room has only one window, and it has a blanket covering it. And I doubt temperatures in my room could rise high enough to damage CDs.

español
Es dificil recordarse las palabras en español por muchas cosas. Uso las palabras de inglés, pero no es correcto. Necesitaré recordarse una palabra en inglés y en español por cosa...

Estamos aprendiendo el futuro y el subjuntivo. El futuro no será un dolor de cabeza, pero el subjuntivo es más dificil.

crypto
May I remind everyone of CipherSaber, intended for exactly this kind of suppression.. async has already posted the algorithm (RC4); all that is needed is the specifics of the file format and any programmer with rudimentary skills can whip up a CipherSaber in a day, or less. I did, in C, in about an hour, plus ten minutes to debug. It's all on the web; if push comes to shove the information could be passed by word of mouth.

They can never eliminate encryption; it's just math. What's next, banning trigonometry, because it could let you calculate the proper angle to launch a missile?

the scenery is here, wish you were beautiful

16 Sep 2001 (updated 16 Sep 2001 at 07:53 UTC) »
Night/Morning. (2 AM, 16 Sep 2001)

those who cannot remember the past...

I've been preparing for the upcoming war by listening to songs from other wars...

o/~
One, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn
The next stop is Vietnam
Five, six, seven, open up the Pearly Gates
Ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee, we're all gonna die
o/~
(Country Joe and the Fish, "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag")

I just realized... you could replace all of the references to "Vietnam" and "Viet Cong" in that song with the modern equivalents, "Afghanistan" and "Al Qaeda"... and it would be perfectly true... even though it'd sound stupid. Just shows to prove what George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Why can no one remember Vietnam, and the hellacious ass-kicking we recieved?

You can't win a war if you can't tell who the enemy is.

school
Calculus test Monday. I'm woefully unprepared, but I think I have a general grasp on the material. I just need to reread the chapter and remember a few key formulas.

Spanish test Thursday. Espero que sacaré una buena nota.

tv
Well, it's well on its way to normality. About half of the broadcast stations have stopped covering the tragedy 24/7 and have begun to show 'normal' programming.
projects
Nothing.

It's strange.. I haven't written any code, which depresses me, which makes me less likely to write code, which depresses me more, which makes me less likely to write code... and so on... Maybe I should just force myself to write... something.

economy
I'm terrified of what could happen on Monday morning. I saw reports from foreign markets that Disney stock is down 20%. If that happens here, my dad could lose his job...

That scares me more than threats of war. A depression would be... depressing. (/me defenestrates himself.)

love America or give it back

15 Sep 2001 (updated 16 Sep 2001 at 04:08 UTC) »
Night.

God bless the usa

I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me
And I gladly stand up next to you
And defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt, I love this land
God Bless the USA
(Lee Greenwood, "God Bless the USA")
striving for normality
I apologize in advance for what I'm about to say; if it offends you, I'm sorry.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about the attack. I take that back; I'm sick of hearing about it non-stop. In my not-so-humble opinion, it's about time to stop broadcasting news 24/7 and begin to introduce the normal television lineup again.

It's not that I don't want to hear about what happened, but when you've heard about how rescue workers are writing their names on their bodies for the twentieth time, you know the subject's been covered well enough.

I know some of you will cry, "What if something happens?" The stations could continue their constant news-ticker that runs along the bottom of the screen, and if anything major happens, they can always interrupt with a special report.

My problem is, this news is draining me emotionally. Usually, when that happens, I turn on the TV and watch some mindless entertainment... but now, they've taken that from me.

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

Update: Most stations are beginning to reintroduce their standard programming lineup. Not all, but most.

an as-yet-unnamed project
No coding done. I'm still trying to figure out how to begin.
mozilla
For some reason, it didn't compile right. I'm not sure why. I'll try the 0.9.4 binary build.

One of my professors upgraded to Netscape 6.1 on her Win95 machine the other day. I can barely tell the difference between the two browsers; whatever changes they made, it couldn't have been much.

hair
I barely bother to comb it anymore; nothing I do seems to keep it in line. I think it'll look good when it's long, but right now, it looks like crap.

I'm trying to grow a goatee too. It's not going so well. My hair just doesn't grow fast enough. Besides, if I go in for a job interview, I'll shave it off and get a haircut.

fake ids
Well, it's not a "fake ID"... but I got dinged for using a printout of the barcode on my real ID instead of digging it out of my wallet. They honestly didn't believe that the barcode was simply the social security number, in Codabar, with start code A and stop code B. I had to show them that when I typed "a078051120b" (not my real SSN, and not valid, either) into Barcode Mill it produced the same barcode.

So far, no disciplinary action has been taken, and I doubt it will. Besides, what can they get me for? I'm using my own barcode, and if anyone had asked, I could have presented my ID anyway.

jobs
None so far... Monday I'll follow up on the two at the school.

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein

Night.

still there are no words for this

...
re: esr
In regard to the "ESR doesn't speak for me!" craze: ESR does speak for me. While I found the article slightly disturbing, I found more fault with his timing than with his message.
project
I've decided against "Yack" as a name. It's just too close to yacc for my comfort, down to the "yet another" part. (BTW, "yack" stood for "Yet Another Checkin Kiosk", in case you didn't decipher it yourself.)

So, I'm looking for a better name. Suggestions are welcome.

In other news, chances aren't good that I'll be able to get the information I need to finish the project. However, what I can do is to create some sort of stub, say get_user_info(), that the school can replace with whatever they currently use. Same with log_checkin(). I don't know why this hasn't hit me before...

mozilla
Compiling goes a lot faster when you don't have to swap.

o/~ and i won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me o/~

Night.

(I apologize for the long, non open source related entry. I think you all understand why, though.)

day that will live in infamy

They don't call 'em "terrorists" for nothing. I felt true terror today for the first time in... well, for the first time that I remember. And I'm in Florida, nowhere near New York or Washington, DC.

The moment that stands out in my mind is when I was watching the reports of the damage to the first tower, and saw the second plane hit. My thoughts instantly changed from "what an unfortunate accident" to "holy shit, they're attacking us".

That's when I realized we aren't as invulnerable as we think we are. That's also when I realized nothing would really be the same.

En route to school, I listened to reports on the radio. When I heard that the towers had collapsed, I cried. I admit it.

I had one class today before the school got shut down. In class, I could almost forget the carnage and the panic; they were merely a horrifying work of fiction.

Just before I got to class, a question hit me: what will this do to our economy? I know it sounds cold to be worried about 'mere' dollars when there are people dying, but during the Depression in the 1930s, many people were dying because of a lack of 'mere dollars'.

I fear it could happen again.

Everybody seems to compare this to Pearl Harbor. There is one major difference, though; at Pearl Harbor we knew who our enemies were. Now, even though we think we know who did this, we don't know where he is, or what he's doing.

I mean, if we can put a cruise missle through a keyhole from hundreds of miles away, why can't we find this son of a bitch and bring him to justice?

I've been spending some time reading the Bible again. We don't know; this could be a single, isolated event, or it could be the beginning of the end.

Nuclear war has been my fear since the start of this whole tragedy. They attack us, we attack them, they attack us more, we step up the firepower, then someone pulls out the nukes.

How do you stop someone like this? The terrorist knows he is going to die anyway, so threats of death don't work. I guess I just don't know.

I'm afraid to go to sleep, afraid that if I don't wake up, the people I love won't know it. When I say "I love you" at the end of a phone call, I mean it, but do they know that I mean it, or do they think that I'm just repeating the phrase? Am I just repeating the phrase?

We are at war, with an enemy we cannot see and cannot fight. I'm going to go to bed and pray that my loved ones and I don't become collateral damage.

My prayers are with those who died today, and those who love them.

No witty comment today. Only sadness and fear.

Afternoon.

yack!

There. It's named. Sort of.

After hours (ok, minutes) of careful consideration, I chose "Yack" for the name of the checkin kiosk system I'm writing. (yes, yes, it's yet another "yet another"...)

It wasn't long before someone reminded me about yacc, though... so I'll probably change it soon. It fits, though... working with the old one makes me want to yack.

secrets
As I found out, the current checkin system is just an Access frontend. I found this out by going to the Documents menu (they didn't disable the taskbar, just auto-hid it).

Tomorrow, I'll get in touch with the guy in charge to see if he'll provide me with the info I need to finish Yack. I doubt it, though.. people are really secretive around here.

coding
Another problem I've encountered is how to create a looping series of dialogs with GTK. My current idea is simply to put the initial dialog creation and gtk_main() into a for(;;) loop... but that seems awfully inelegant. Any ideas?

Also, how would I recieve keystrokes without having to have a text entry box visible? The barcode scanner my school uses simply acts as though the digits had been typed, and the current system, with the text box, is ugly.

generality
Originally, I had grand, sweeping ideas for Yack. You know, the kind where it's the only system people ever use, because it's so expandable and configurable. Then I realized just how hard it would be to code that.

Now I'm just going to make an app that does what this school needs and leave it at that. If anyone else wants to modify it, go ahead, once I'm done.

social life
None at present.

Currently, "getting out" means going to Wal-Mart with my ten-year-old friend. (I'm 19. The closest people to my age that live near me are either <10 or >30. I associate better with the ten-year-olds. Don't ask why, I don't know.)

I asked the girl I've been tutoring out to a movie, but she's always busy. She works evenings during the week, and studies and goes to church on the weekends. No time there for anything else, apparently.

I'm tempted to buy a seasonal pass to Disney World, so I won't have to use up Dad's gate pass admissions. Currently I go about once every two months, but that's mostly because I don't want to waste tickets. With a seasonal pass, I could go daily if I wanted to, except for the block-out dates, and Dad's tickets work almost all of that time (except for New Year's Eve).

war and peace and long entries
I know I write long entries. I've been writing long entries for a while now. No one's ever complained to me about them. If you don't like them, let me know, OK?

I don't see why mirwin would need to have an alternate account, though. It's not like there are any per-account restrictions (that I know of)...

mozilla
Tried installing the Mozilla 0.9.3 packages from Debian Sid. However, Mozilla wouldn't start. Now, I'm going to get the source (while on my school's connection) and compile it at home.
ram
Got 256 more megabytes of RAM the other day. Now I'm up to 384 MB... the old Mozilla was orders of magnitude faster than before... but how could I have been memory-starved with 128 MB?

Also bought Soldier of Fortune. (Windows version, sorry.) That is one hell of a game... I don't know why I didn't get it earlier.

prosecution
The computer lab staff don't care what I do, as long as it's all run from the Zip drive and not installed to the hard drive, and not against their published rules (ssh isn't). At least that's what they're claiming. And it's also subject to change depending on their whims.

i love this fucking school and this school loves fucking me

Early Morning.

checkins

Still no real code. I've spent some time playing with Glade, trying to come up with a nice-looking, easy to use interface. I think I have the basic idea down.

I'm still trying to decide whether to use GTK or some other toolkit. If the app is intended for Windows, Qt is out, because of the "non-commercial" requirement in its Windows version. I really don't want to have to learn the Windows APIs to create a single app. Besides, I like GTK.

However, although GTK runs with Windows, I'm not sure whether it can be linked statically to the app. This is a requirement, at least for the version I show off, because the Powers that Be won't allow me to install any software on the computers.

As a compromise, I could instead keep the .DLLs in the same directory as the executable, if that's possible.

I'm still trying to decide between using XML for a config file format, or creating my own. Although XML is the wave of the present, and is expandable, it seems like overkill for what little configuration I actually need to do.

Basically, I have a hierarchy of choices. At present it's only two levels, but it's a hierarchy nonetheless. My idea is to present a collection of buttons for each level of the hierarchy, and have each button present another window with the next level's selections. Plus, I'd need to have another collection of buttons, one for each class the student is taking (something they want to collect info about, even though I lie about it every time... usually I choose randomly from the list).

My biggest problem is still a lack of knowledge about how the current information is stored. I don't know where the app pulls the student information from, or where it stores information about who is currently logged in and what he is currently doing. I guess I'll have to bullshit something up and plug in the correct values when I learn them.

sex drives
olandgren: Whoa... I thought I was weird for being able to turn mine off at will...
more about certs
bjf: I agree with the "meta-certification" idea. A person's hacking ability and their ability to judge other people's hacking abilities are not necessarily linked. While it's true that "it takes one to know one", it's also true that a single person's cert shouldn't raise a person to a given certification level.
hair
I tried combing my hair straight backwards today. It didn't work too well, so I tried hairspray. I'm thinking I did something wrong, because I ended up with a crispy-feeling top layer with normal hair underneath.

Now, after I've combed most of the dry hairspray out, my hair looks better than it did before I started.... well, with the exception of the big ugly cowlick I probably always had.

eschew obfuscation

5 Sep 2001 (updated 5 Sep 2001 at 19:24 UTC) »
Night/Early Morning.

attack of the killer dust bunnies, part deux

No danger from this one, only hassle. And massive amounts of dust.

I replaced my CD-ROM and floppy drives. While the front cover was removed to enable the floppy drive to slide out, I noticed the massive amount of dust built up on the case air intake fan. So I removed it from the case and used a toothbrush to knock off the dust. By the way, a dry, soft bristle toothbrush is a godsend when cleaning dust from electronic components.

Anyway, it's back where it's supposed to be, and apparently running cooler. Only one glitch so far; the computer suddenly turned itself off when I tried to start Netscape for the first time. When I rebooted and started everything up again, it was fine, and is still working perfectly.

weight
olandgren: Good to hear you're losing some weight. Just don't let the scale fool you.

According to the skinfold tests I had had performed as part of my Wellness Concepts class, I'm approximately 28 percent fat. Apparently, that's incredibly obese. However, I weigh 285 lb, plus or minus ten. 28 percent of that is approximately 80 pounds.

This means that if I lose every ounce of fat on my body, I would still weigh more than 200 pounds. My ideal weight has been changed thanks to this revelation.

All of the body mass index charts put my ideal weight at 130-170 lb.... this reveals the primary weakness of the BMI measurement: it doesn't take frame size or body fatness into account, only height and weight. My previous target was approximately 180 lb, but now I've tweaked that upward to 220 lb. Hey, if I (re)start my diet now, I can be down to 250 by Christmas, and 220 by my birthday in March, if my previous success is any indication.

Goodbye, burgers and pizza... hello, rice and beans.

coding
Still encountering problems with the checkin-system project.

First, I still haven't found an answer regarding the "statically linking GTK" question. Now, I have another library that needs to be statically linked... libxml2. DV, can this be done? Does it even work in WIndows, and if so, can it be linked statically into the executable?

Is XML overkill for a simple app such as this? If someone can suggest a simple, easily parsed config file format, let me know.

Second, I've never started a project before... I don't even know where to begin. All of the code I've written in the past has either been small, one-file class assignments, or changes to existing programs (amcl,ithought).

Are there any docs you would suggest I read before I begin the real coding? I'm going out on a limb here, and hoping it doesn't snap from underneath me.

Third, I don't know what kind of database system they're currently using, and I doubt the current checkin system is open source; with my current reputation as a cracker (undeserved... apparently anyone using a DOS box is trying to break into something), I seriously doubt they'd tell me much.

licensing
Right now I'm afraid of somebody at the school I attend either misinterpreting or outright ignoring the GPL. I'll make sure that I maintain copyright of the code, and inform them of their rights under the GPL.
certs (one more time)
Found out I can still singlehandedly cert someone from Observer to Journeyer. This is just wrong.
anti-aliasing
gdkfxt, the GTK anti-aliasing library, is neat, but between the slowdown in apps and the widgets that don't work quite right, it's just a neat toy in its current incarnation.

Hopefully GTK+ 2.0 will sort out most of these issues.

i'm not apathetic... i just don't care

4 Sep 2001 (updated 12 Sep 2001 at 05:17 UTC) »
Night.

attack of the killer dust bunnies

Had a frightening experience last night. While I was ripping a CD to Ogg Vorbis, my motherboard's temperature alarm started sounding. Not knowing what it was, I killed power immediately. (I know that's not a good idea, but I panicked.)

Once I realized what it was, I booted into the BIOS setup screen and checked the temperature... It was reading 60 degrees celsius (~ 140 F) on the CPU and 40 degrees celsius (~ 105 F) on the motherboard. This was after about ten minutes of cooling down, so I assumed the temperature must have been much higher.

I also realized that I hadn't cleaned the dust from my computer for months, and I had never cleaned the dust from inside the fans. So I cleaned both my workstation and firewall, and rearranged all of the boxen and cables.

When I was done cleaning, I hooked the machine back up where it belongs, and started everything back up. About twenty seconds after starting the workstation, it began to buzz loudly, so I killed the power again. I assumed that the additional CD-ROM drive I had placed into the machine was causing the buzz, so I removed it and tested again. The buzz was still there.

Upon closer inspection, it was determined that the fan attached to my video card's Riva TNT chip had malfunctioned. Apparently, the dust had kept the worn-out fan from rattling; when I removed the dust the rattle began with a vengeance. I pried the fan from the chip after multiple attempts to halt the buzzing, including a more thorough cleaning. Then, I used superglue (yes, I know it has bad thermal properties...) to attach an old socket 7 fan to the TNT chip (and not to the CPU as previously reported).

So far, it seems to work tolerably well... it hasn't fallen off yet and the box hasn't locked up (the previous symptom of an overheat, and the reason the fan was attached originally).

Remember to clean the dust from your computer. Your sanity may depend on it.

(This public service announcement brought to you by the Association for Cooler CPUs.)

certs (yet again)
Yes, the trust metric is way too loose.

kmcmartin: Worse yet, one Journeyer cert bumped me up. I even certified myself as Apprentice.

(This public service announcement brought to you by the National Organization of Over-certified Wannabes.)

no more aliases!
I got gdkxft set up today. It worked with a minimum of hassle... simply amazing.

By the way, where the README talks about certain misbehaved widgets causing problems... ithought contains two of them (text box and CList). You probably don't want to use gtkxft with ithought anytime soon.

(This public service announcement brought to you by the Committee for Reduction of Aliasing, also known as the No More Aliasing Foundation, also known as the Aliasing Reduction Task Force.)

evil empires
Is it wrong to decry a company while simultaneously using their products? I have to admit, I love my Sidewinder, and I've been addicted to Age of Empires for the past few days. But I don't like what Microsoft does, and most of their products are garbage. Am I being a hypocrite?

By the way, I only paid $10 for AoE, from Wal-Mart.

(This public service announcement brought to you by the Shut Your Pie Hole Foundation.)

we now return you to your regularly scheduled life

2 Sep 2001 (updated 2 Sep 2001 at 16:13 UTC) »
Night/Morning. (3 AM EDT, 2 September)

certs again

I still don't know why people are trying to have mirwin decertified. Reading through kelly's diary, it seems to have something to do with the certification of pkiforum. While I agree that certifying a collective entity is generally a bad idea, it seems to have been justified in this case.

mirwin: Your last entry was much easier to read (in my opinion) than your earlier ones. I still think it would be a good idea to read Strunk and White's The Elements Of Style (in italics now, thanks kelly).

I just realized that that whole book is quite possibly shorter than one of mirwin's entries. It's usually required reading for most college English courses, too.

coding
I haven't even started the actual coding yet. I'm still playing with the interface and which widget set to use.

You see, I currently only use GTK. I haven't had the chance to play with Qt yet. However, GTK for Windows is fairly beta, and Qt for Windows is as stable as (more stable than?) the Linux version, according to my sources. Now, I don't mind using a partially-implemented widget set (I don't plan on using much other than buttons, labels, and boxes), but crashes are a problem.

The point of this is to: 1. replace the godawful checkin system already in place (see my previous entry for more information) and 2. demonstrate the power and stability of Open Source products to the unwashed masses (my school is overrun with MicroSerfs). Having the app crash due to the open source widget set would be a major setback. (Having it crash due to my own mistake would just be embarassing.)

What would be the easiest way to create the app in Linux (where I have all of my familiar tools) and later port it to Win32 (where I have to use M$VC++)? Preferably with a minimum of recoding? (No, I'm not going to use Java.)

Also, can GTK be statically linked to a .EXE file, or loaded from the same directory as the binary? I don't believe I'll be able to install a full set of GTK libs onto the demonstration machine. How about Qt? Other widget sets?

written tics (etc.)
I noticed (recently) that I (as in me) tend to use lots (and lots and lots) of parentheses (these things) while writing (or typing). I'm trying not to.
absence...
... makes the heart grow fonder? I'll get back to you on that one.

I showed up where I was supposed to meet the friend that I was supposed to tutor. When I got to the student center, the doors were locked and the lights were off. This is strange, because the student center is usually open on Saturday. (I later realized it was because of the Labor Day holiday here in the US... everyone took a long weekend starting Friday afternoon.)

So anyway, I sat in my car for about an hour, then drove home. When I got home, I called her cellphone to see if maybe I had mis-recorded the time we were scheduled to meet.

When I called, she was in Jacksonville, having taken a friend to see her mother, who died of cancer this morning. She said that she tried to contact me but couldn't for some reason. I believe her, actually.

We're supposed to meet to study Tuesday. I'll post more as it happens.

many are cold, but few are frozen

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