Older blog entries for jrf (starting at number 9)

Pretty quiet day today. I took a lot of time to certify a lot of different people. I pretty much follow lilo's philosophy of bumping people who have potential and helping out with those already well in their rating or on their way to another.

No news on the publishing stuff but interestingly enough, there seems to be an industry-wide affliction. A fellow writer had a serious downturn in luck recently (waaay worse than me) and I sincerely hope all goes well for him.

Stewing on OutRider content for September. have a few ideas but have to bounce them off of some folks first.

Still planning some big home installation/reconfiguration activites this week end (see prior entries) but school has been tough, I am having difficulty concentrating due to some professional problems, this will probably affect my coding as well - actually it already has.

Things will work though - one way or the other - they have to really it is just a matter of getting from AtoB - or is it [a-b]?

Today I added a lot of styles to ye olde homepage. Nothing too fancy just basic style formatting.

Spent most of the day creating several resume formats for folks as well and had a good time conversing with jlf.

I realized diskinfo could use a couple of code cleanups and enhancements like showing the size in MB, GB or TB instead of raw bytes. I think I will back burner it until I get some work done on the py/tk sysinfo thing.

Otherwise a regular day at the job.

Well, what a vacation. I got a severe rash (an allergic reaction is what we are all guessing but who knows) that may send me to the local doctor.

Oh well, everyone else had fun which IsAGoodThing(tm).

Otherwise I have the following activities lined up for the next week:

1. study and get a lot of schoolwork done, it is a long road to the masters!
2. check out interrupt.pm for anything I think it might need
3. at the end of the week install NetBSD 1.4.2 on a SPARC5
4. install NIC on Linux system and recompile kernel to see it
5. get NIC and SPARC a talkin'
6. add extensions to mmw for swap - or create a swap watcher (hmm)
7. start prototyping the python/tk sysinfo GUI thingy - my protyping to production (in C, C++ and Perl5) is usually 5 days - we shall see with python/tk!
8. keep my eyeballs on the various lists for helping out . . . duh I already do that.
9. write OutRider content for September - lets see if I can do it on schedule this month!

crap that is a lot of stuff - thats cool - how else would I like it? Boring - I think not!

Boy I must have been super tired when I made the previous entry. I have not heard back yet on the side effects of the publishing situation, but I know someone close to it and it looks like they are just plain busy, plus I told them I will be on vacation which really starts today. This will be the last entry for awhile so i guess I will push onto project stuff real quick:

OutRider seems to have gotten some new life breathed into it, subscriptions have gone through the roof, I must believe it has something to do with my involvement here. Which is an unexpected benefit.

mmw seems good to go, the enhancements I mentioned earlier will probably be tacked on in a few weeks.

I am still in the thinking phase of the python/tk sysinfo idea. I won't even begin coding this for another week or so.

I also saw some people I worked with on the 21st had done some great things with my contribs (one even made a perl module) - that was cool.

Well that is all folks, I am heading to mother ocean for surf, sun and family time - no computers - just my board, clan and brew.

I do believe this will actually go down as something I own but I want to share the phrase with everyone.

The phrase is today was a good day - but - in a very robust manner. Most popular with Nordic cultures, a saying of I have done much, perhaps my part.

Today I contrib'd some code to a brother in arms (real actual code) and helped in the shaping of their future release. Not only that, I helped another brother in arms grapple with dist CDs for NetBSD plus if XFCE needs a documentor I have volunteered and been accepted (although someone else volunteered for this already but it has_been_awhile).

On an end note, I think I have found my place here. I wil continue to code and look for those system level utils that make our jobs easier, but, in the end my contributions as a whole are what make a difference. So, screw my other problems. Getting my_next_job as a great sysadmin (and hey - I am good at it) or a device developer or *whatever* is second in the long run - what I am doing to help out is what is important. I know I can score a good job, that is not a problem. What matters is hat I give back in my spare time - code, install-help or writing - or - ALL --- that is what will set me apart.

The reality of the publisher situation is this; I purposefully sabatoged my monetary means therein to ensure a clean moral slate. The side effect is other side projects (which i believe are imortant but have commercial ties) may be affected. I am querying now and I really hope not.

I will sleep good tonite because my freinds have told me - today - was a good day for me.

Okay I see I do not neccessarily have to certify myself. Then I will not do so, that does not make any sense to me.

I had a systems userland/programming article get posted at slashdot.org/bsd - I almost fell out of my chair laughing. I wrote the article as a reference (mainly using a system library) and decided to share it, I can't believe anyone thought it was slashable material, oh well, stranger things have happened.

I am starting to feel better about my mistake with a publisher. I don't think I have really learned the implications of the hard lesson as it were, but I do not feel so terribly awful now. Perhaps after my vacation I will get my head screwed on straight.

Yesterday I actually downloaded, installed and setup a database with MySQL. What ever possessed me to do such a thing I have no idea, I have never really been interested in databases but for some reason I got an itch and just had to know what everyone was talking about. I have used PL/SQL a little (okay - I so I was forced to) but I was seriously surprised at how easy mysql was to set up. I have done about 10 Oracle installs and can heartily say - I hated them. Maybe mysql will get me over that prejudice?

The tweaks to mmw are done and uploaded. I made the dumbest mistake in the field width specification in previous releases and had to fix that. For fun I am thinking of adding a swap watch option too, might as well cover all the bases right?

My Next Big Thing(tm) is deciding what I want to do next (when I grwo up). I have gotten really good at systems administration and hence once I get good at something, obviously I need to change! I have been thinking for the longest time I want to write device drivers (being a hardware geek and all) but without access (or mulah really) to new hardware I don't really know if I will get the practical experience.

Perhaps this is another issue I need to think about while surfing (the ocean - not the web) during vacation?

Oh, BTW all, my wife is a practicing anthropologist/archaologist who just got back from a dig (although she was a surveyor) in Turkey. The Gordian site - I have no_idea_why but everywhere I turn these days in the community at large, everyone else knows someone else in a similar field - so - here is her site:

at geocities and yes I know, I have tried to get her to move onto the Diverge.Org server but I think she fears losing traffic or something (or just doesn't want to put up with a gestapo administrator like myself).

Well I have made a huge mistake, one that I cannot go into details about here, suffice to say I need to learn to hold my tongue and patience (it seems that having a personality just the opposite of that is great way to screw your life up). I have managed to get myself booted from what was a really great side job all because of my own stupidity and arrogance.

Over time perhaps things can be remedied, for now it looks like I have managed to pretty much trash what could have been a good alternative career. I also fear ripple effects out into other things I am doing, but the two have not been directly connected before (I see no reason for that now).

That is all for today.

I decided to can the c++ version of mmw, it might make more sense to either make a c module or just ensure it is easy for folks to copy it. I am still looking at the sysinfo thing. The refinements on mmw are almost complete and should be uploaded to metalab today or tomorrow.

What a day, as promised I am posting some projects I am doing and what it is I have been up to. Last night (this morning?) I finished this month's update to The OutRider Computing Journal. The articles are okay but I am pretty sure the Fall season will be better, for some reason I am always more inspired then. I also did some touch up work on the mmw program I wrote (it is on my homepage) of course I have yet to update it. I want to do a few more tweaks then I will be done. The projects I am looking into are:

1. a python/tk sysinfo applet for linux and BSD
2. a c++ version of mmw, I want to create a meminfo class. perhaps other people might find it handy?

I am also having some PR or HR problems with an online publisher, I finally had to get down and dirty and contact an executive staff member today, I feel lousy about the whole thing but have to admit I was being a jerk at some junctures. Sometimes when you feel like you are getting your chain pulled you do stupid crap. I sincerely hope I haven't burned a bridge.

One thing I noticed here is that everyone rates themselves (usually to the current level) I wonder if I should do this to? It doesn't seem to make any sense to me to certify myself?

oh well - off to work I go for late weekend maintenance.

This is my first diary entry ever here at advogato. I suppose I am making it just_to_have_one.

In a few days I will post some projects I am working on and regurgitate some generic information about me which can easily be found on my home page but hey - we are all lazy to a degree so why not replicate data and save everyone time I say.