Older blog entries for ahosey (starting at number 21)

There's something I want to know, vis a vis the whole GNOME/KDE debate: There's more than one free software kernel out there. Why aren't people bitching about that? I don't see anyone saying the FreeBSD guys should shut down and work on Linux. Or the Linux guys should shut down and work on FreeBSD. I bet there are people out there that think that, but my point is that I'm not seeing those people because the kernel project dichotomy is not blown out of proportion like the desktop seperation is. What gives with that?

We rolled out new web services, replacing one machine with three machines. I'm now convinced there are no web problems which can't be solved with mod_rewrite.

I've set up sawfish so a giant gong sounds when a new window is opened. You should hear it when I restart a session and 20 windows start up. I am amused. Chris is appalled.

Do you ever do that thing where you talking to someone about a problem or an idea, and as you bounce around the ideas your brain kind of switches gears and the solution starts to come out of your mouth and you're thinking as fast as you're talking and it feels like you're going too fast but it doesn't matter because you know that everything you're saying is exactly right anyway.

I find that exhilarating.

I could spit a lot of bile about sendmail right now, but I won't. I'll just say that even when sendmail tries to be secure, it does it badly.

If you come home from the grocery with a six pack of warm beer, putting it in the freezer is a good way to chill it quickly. But here's a tip: only put one bottle in the freezer at a time! That way if you forget about it you've only frozen one bottle and not the whole six pack.

Don't act like I'm the only one who's ever done that.

Didn't happen tonight though. One bottle at a time.

Haven't posted a diary in a while. So why post one now? I don't really have anything to say. Oh well I'll try anyway.

Haven't really felt like hacking free software for a couple weeks. Kinda weird, I used to thirst for it like I was in a desert. I need to make another revision of xload-snmp and Miguel said he'd be happy to take my gnome-session patch if I made a couple minor changes. I guess I should get on that.

So instead of hacking I've been playing games. I started playing System Shock 2 and that's going to be a real problem. It's really my kind of game, I can tell it's going to cut into other things I should be doing - like sleep.

I guess I shouldn't worry so much about the hacking/playing dichotomy and just do what I feel.

I feel better about work than I have in a while. I think finally getting my hands on all the hardware components really helped, so that I can move forward at my own speed. Of course the project timetable has slid back over a month, but now I see nothing between me and the goal except my own fat ass.

Now dammit, why can't jlf get a rank? I know I gripe about certing someone "just because" but I really do think Jeremy deserves Apprentice rank. He can't post any articles or projects (which he has some to post) - a perfect example of what I was saying earlier about missing out on the input of good people. He's got like 10 certs and it still won't rank him. So go check it out and if you think he deserves it please give him a cert.

I looked at the comprehensive People page last night and saw a surprising number of Observers. I know Advogato is gaining popularity but I didn't expect that many uncerted people. I'm sure most of them have lots of good input to give but they can't post in article threads without a cert. So I browsed some of the Observer accounts trying to give certs but most of them have no project listings and no diaries.

Without anything to go on I can't give a cert. So new people, put up some descriptive content! I prefer to see project listings, but I think I can also tell a lot about someone from diary entries - I certified jefft just based on his diary cause it seemed clear (to me) he was a man with a clue. But I need something to go on before I can give a cert.

Other random crap:

One of the hard drives in the 486 is making a bad sound. I don't expect it to be much longer in this world. I can replace it with an old Conner I have, but the Conner doesn't like to pair with another drive on the same IDE channel. It works but it's slow. I think it creates a lot of contention for some reason. Drat.

If all the Layer 4 protocols in the world were replaced with some form of remote method calls would that be a win or a lose? I'm inclined to say win.

I have something tedious to do, which I promised someone at work I would do tonight since I didn't do it this afternoon. I'm trying to nurse a good buzz to the point where I don't mind doing it. Not quite there yet. In a world with hard cider, why does anyone drink beer?