Older blog entries for superant (starting at number 31)

Two people in the last couple of days have offered to help with LinuDent That is very nice. Too bad sourceforge is acting up again. No shell access for the next couple of days.

The plan is now to code the front end in HTML and JavaScript and the backend with perl and cgi.

Got a great writeup of one person's experience installing Small Linux on his laptop and setting up PLIP.

Small Linux

I have been lost in Apache, PHP, mySQL torments. All three are working fine on Windows 98, Debian Linux 2.2, but having problems on my Palmax. I guess my build environment is flaky. I mainly use the handheld computer as a terminal. But it does have a 4 gig drive and I can use it as a full Linux system when I don't have a cable attached to my desktop machine.

Systems at home:

main desktop: 233 pentium with 16 gigs and Debian 2.2 and kernel 2.4.2 and glibc 2.2

Charlotte's machine 133 pentium with Windows 98

Small Machine with 486 and 4 megs with Small Linux , kernel 2.0.0 and libc 5.0

Palmax 133 pentium with Debian 2.0, kernel 2.0.38 and glibc 2.1

So almost no binary can be moved from one machine to another and just work. Oh well.

On the parent front, mostly bad news. My father is sick and my mother is no better. So Mothers day was a feeble day of hard work and health care services.

My home box from memory: Debian unstable Linux Kernel 2.4.2, X 4.01, GNOME, WMaker. Have been testing different Window Managers to try to reduce slowness in my X windows system. Have Charlotte's X setting using GNOME and WMaker too, but want to make it a little more Windows friendly to her, since she uses Win98 at work all day.

At work I have installed Apache, MySql and PHP on my Win98 machine. What a strange feeling to be using mostly Open Source on the Redmond operating system.

Have updated the Dr. Dobbs Site

Noticed in interacting with people that the fear and distrust that we see in international relations is mirrored in personal relations. I guess it is just human instinctual behavior to distrust the people around you. It comes out in small ways here in California, and in a more dramatic way in the relations between countries.

Got the new DrDobbs Linux Digest produced:

Linux Digest

Hope that more people volunteer to help edit the Open

Directory Project. I just got in from hours of editing, and boy, are my wings tired:

dmoz.org

I edit in Linux, but more help is needed in Linux, BSD, Perl and other areas. I'm off to Hawai'i this weekend. Charlotte has to go for work, I am willing to sacrifice to keep her company.

I am exploring MySql databases from Pascal and Ada. My idea is to use a MySql server that is used for feeding web pages for the LinuDent application.

I certified andersee because I have used busybox on the last version of Small Linux.

I may produce a version of Small Linux with busybox and ulibc.

My mother has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. I don't know if I believe the doctor, but I will be glad if the prescribed drugs work to improve her condition.

On the coding front: Someone was having a missing header problem compiling LinuDent from source. I told him I am redesigning it to use a web server and browser design. I said a demo would be ready in a week. (bad coder, never, ever promise a date!)

Now, I forget, how do you compile a Debian source package?

apt-get build-dep package

apt-get --compile source package

dpkg -i package.deb

Quite and intense conversation with a co-worker yesterday. "do people in different cultures look at death differently". My tack on the convesation was "do people in some cultural groups not fear or react the same as we do to death".

I argued that all humans react to the death of their friends and loved ones in a strong fashion. I believe it is in our instinctual behaviors to have a strong reaction to the death of those close to us. We talked about religious followers and cultural groups that appear to be not afraid of death. And groups that have different views of the afterlife. My observation of my small surroundings on the West coast of the U.S. is that all people, no matter their religious belief, have a strong reaction to the death of their loved ones.

On the computer programming side I have been using Ada to build some cgi-bin programs to search for data in text databases.

Have also looked at some of the operating system or kernel projects written in Ada. Ada OS projects

If a project is Open Source, then the code base should be transparent and readable/understadable to the largest possible population. That is one of the reasons I am looking at Ada now.

Got a nice email from the author of "Programming In Ada 95".

I recommended his book in CanonicalTomes.org

Ada is a very readable programming language. The problem has always been that it is such a large language. You can use it for Linux device drivers and systems programming, but it requires effort to do that. Big book of Ada for Linux

Finally pulled together the March Linux Digest for DrDobbs. Linux Digest

Still have a Linux kernel question I don't know the answer to. DDJ Linux Forum. Oh well, learning is what life is all about.

I'm using the Palmax as a dumb terminal. I love taking highly developed technogies and using them in old ways. Modified the inittab on my server to have a getty open on /dev/ttyS1 and attached about 20 feet of db9 serial cable between the Palmax and the server with a null modem connecter in it. (somethings called laplink cable).

On the server I installed lrzsz to give me zmodem transfers. On the Palmax I installed minicom and lrzsz. Then when I bring up minicom on the Palmax I am logging onto the server and can use all the console mode programs on the server.

The same effect could be done with slip, but I did not want to have to manually start slip on the server. Palmax links

I am taking my mother to the doctor in two days for a checkup. I hope to get a wheelchair for her. It would be about time. She has not walked for 6 months.