a collection of ellipses and digressions

This should totally conflict eonen...

2009-12-08T18:49:07Z

http://i.imgur.com/eg2kJ.jpg

and

http://21.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kso7jo5HSq1qzu29qo1_500.jpg

eBay has failed me finally...

2009-12-08T02:20:42Z

I ordered a Blackberry case advertised to fit my Blackberry, and received one that fits my old one.

Damn it.

And the most annoying part is it took 2 damn weeks to get here - shipped USPS first class from NY. It was mailed nearly a week after I bought the item.

And, just so I remember, the dude's eBay name is cellular_emporium.

Pretty irritated atm. Grrr.

Humorous sexist stereotype time!

2009-10-02T20:47:26Z

Just look at the URL even: it's obviously a man centric site, with a page titled "Men vs Women".

http://www.manolith.com/2009/10/01/men-versus-women/

Fixed my Xbox-360 last night

2009-09-30T21:15:42Z

Removed the dumbass clamps used to hold the headsinks to the chips (CPU + GPU), drilled through the board backing plate (box is more like it), put in specific screws with some specific washers, tightened it hella down, heated it up, and it now works like a charm.

Huzzah!

guesstimaybe

2009-09-30T15:52:19Z

I just came up with that word.

Estimate - suggests some level of accuracy
Guesstimate - best guess, based on limited info
Guesstimaybe - throw a dart on the wall and when giving a guesstimaybe, it's strongly to wave your hands in a fashion suggesting 'who the hell knows'.

Roman Polanski

2009-09-29T00:27:20Z

So, some famous guy, who's had a pretty horrific things happen in his life, had sex with a 13 y/o. After sharing drugs with her (I say 'sharing' as that sounds less judgmental than 'giving' or 'administering').

And now that he's been arrested for extradition to the US to face those charges, finally, people are upset about it.

What's to be upset about? Dude had sex with an underage person. It doesn't matter if you're rich or not, you face the court.

Instead, this weasel fled the country.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's horrible what happened to his wife and unborn child, and what happened to his mother (I don't know anything about his dad).

And I understand he made some pretty edge films. Haven't seen any myself.

By none of those facts give him a free pass to break a law and get away with it. Even a law that some might think of as a 'moral' law (I don't consider that a moral law btw: it's there to safe guard children. They don't /know/ what they need to know at that age and are incredibly impressionable and can seriously screw up a life - regardless of how it went down, and the circumstances.)

When someone does something wrong, it doesn't matter that they're in the same industry as you, are a friend, part of some union or brotherhood: you don't support them. That's tacit approval of their actions.

This dude is a chicken shit. He /knows/ he's guilty. Be upright, or piss off.

Goin to see 'The Retros' in Kirkland this Saturday

2009-09-25T20:18:36Z

Wanna go?

The Retros are retiring at the end of this year - which makes me a little sad.

So, I'm going. And if we can get a sitter, Meek will come too.

Anyone else wanna go/baby sit?

Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.

2009-09-20T17:39:05Z

I like that line. Nabbed from a comment on digg article http://digg.com/world_news/Research_Finds_that_Atheists_are_Most_Hated_and_Distrusted

PERL: Numbering a grid any repetitive way you need

2009-08-19T22:18:25Z

This was cross posted in itprofessionals

I'm working on some Perl code (might get moved to PHP) which will be the basis for displaying server racks - and blade servers (blade servers, in the big picture, really are just mini-racks).

The trick is, racks can be of different U heights, and blade servers could be numbered however the OEM wants (you'd /think/ horizontally, starting in the upper left).

The parameters of the 'racks' will be stored in a db (ldap in this case), and I wanted the parameters to be human readable.

So, I've written the following Perl code. There's testing output included, and for what this is, I don't see any need to remove it.

Here's some sample output:

TLV: 20 VI: -1
PriOrder: Vertical
PriOrderStart: Bottom
SecOrderStart: Right
U_Horz: 5
U_Vert: 4

HorzInc: -4
VertInc: -1
TopLeftVal: 20

20      16      12      8       4
19      15      11      7       3
18      14      10      6       2
17      13      9       5       1

I'd /love/ to hear thoughts on optimizing (especially the large 'if' section) it.

- chris

$PriOrder="Horizontal";
$PriOrderStart="Left";
$SecOrderStart="Bottom";
$U_Horz=5;
$U_Vert=4;

if ( $PriOrder eq "Horizontal" ) {
  if ( $PriOrderStart eq "Left" ) {
    $HorzInc=1;
    if ( $SecOrderStart eq "Top" ) {
      $TopLeftVal=1;
      $VertInc=$U_Horz;
      print "TLV: $TopLeftVal\tVI: $VertInc\n";
    }
    if ( $SecOrderStart eq "Bottom" ) {
      $TopLeftVal=$U_Horz * ( $U_Vert - 1 ) + 1;
      $VertInc=-$U_Horz;
      print "TLV: $TopLeftVal\tVI: $VertInc\n";
    }
  }
  if ( $PriOrderStart eq "Right" ) {
    $HorzInc=-1;
    if ( $SecOrderStart eq "Top" ) {
      $TopLeftVal=$U_Horz;
      $VertInc=$U_Horz;
      print "TLV: $TopLeftVal\tVI: $VertInc\n";
    }
    if ( $SecOrderStart eq "Bottom" ) {
      $TopLeftVal=$U_Horz * $U_Vert;
      $VertInc=-$U_Horz;
      print "TLV: $TopLeftVal\tVI: $VertInc\n";
    }
  }
}

if ( $PriOrder eq "Vertical" ) {
  if ( $SecOrderStart eq "Left" ) {
    $HorzInc=$U_Vert;
    if ( $PriOrderStart eq "Top" ) {
      $TopLeftVal=1;
      $VertInc=1;
      print "TLV: $TopLeftVal\tVI: $VertInc\n";
    }
    if ( $PriOrderStart eq "Bottom" ) {
      $TopLeftVal=$U_Vert;
      $VertInc=-1;
      print "TLV: $TopLeftVal\tVI: $VertInc\n";
    }
  }
  if ( $SecOrderStart eq "Right" ) {
    $HorzInc=-$U_Vert;
    if ( $PriOrderStart eq "Top" ) {
      $TopLeftVal=$U_Vert * ( $U_Horz - 1 ) + 1;
      $VertInc=1;
      print "TLV: $TopLeftVal\tVI: $VertInc\n";
    }
    if ( $PriOrderStart eq "Bottom" ) {
      $TopLeftVal=$U_Vert * $U_Horz;
      $VertInc=-1;
      print "TLV: $TopLeftVal\tVI: $VertInc\n";
    }
  }
}

print "PriOrder: $PriOrder\n";
print "PriOrderStart: $PriOrderStart\n";
print "SecOrderStart: $SecOrderStart\n";
print "U_Horz: $U_Horz\n";
print "U_Vert: $U_Vert\n";
print "\n";
print "HorzInc: $HorzInc\n";
print "VertInc: $VertInc\n";
print "TopLeftVal: $TopLeftVal\n\n";

for ($VertLoop = 0; $VertLoop < $U_Vert; $VertLoop++) {
  $RowStart = $TopLeftVal+($VertLoop*$VertInc);
  $RowEnd   = $RowStart+$HorzInc*($U_Horz-1);

  for ($HorzLoop = $RowStart; $HorzLoop != $RowEnd+$HorzInc; $HorzLoop+=$HorzInc) {
    print "$HorzLoop\t";
  }
  print "\n";
}

Ok, my nuts can stop aching now.

2009-07-13T21:13:43Z

On an unrelated note, I've realized I'm kind of pushy.

----

Told a joke today to my coworkers:

So, at the end of last week, I not only got my car fixed by I got myself fixed too!

instantrimshot.com

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week (primarily cause I can't walk quickly).

Blame

2009-07-11T22:01:01Z

Man, I'm on a roll! Don't know if that's good or bad though...

Anyway, on to my thoughts here. Which I must add aren't entirely mine; I got them in parts or in it's entirely from zanfur.

A lot of people focus on blame. They blame someone, themselves or others, for some difficulty or hurt feeling.

What's the point of blame?
To find out who's responsible for the difficulty.

Why?
For assignment of punishment.

Is it useful then?
In legal arenas, you bet. We blame a murderer for murdering someone. And then punish them.
In businesses, you bet. To identify what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future, or fire someone who's proven unable to uphold their part of the employer/employee relationship.

In personal relationships? Nope.

If Blame ==> punishment, is that what you really want? Wouldn't it be better to simply find out where the disconnect is and discuss it? Hurt feelings are unavoidable - they'll happen. They are real and can be very intense. But finding blame doesn't assist with identifying the disconnect or misunderstanding. And really, do you want to punish (not S&M style folks) someone you want to have a relationship with? I don't.

What're your thoughts?

Edit: ---------------------------------------------------
Semantics. What a fun topic. There's normally a plethora of words and phrases to get an idea across - each with their own nuances.

I'm not talking about Responsibility (syn: burden, charge, obligation).

I am talking about Blame. Some synonyms: fault, onus, condemnation. You know, the finger pointing, angry kind that at face value, and initially, totally avoids the possibility that whatever the difficulty was/is that it might /not/ be a big deal, or it might be a fault with positive side effects.

And I'd like to think that in any relationship one would desire to retain, that type of blaming would be avoided.

Here's a couple of links I found in a few moments of searching:
http://www.yourromanceguide.com/articles/relationships/relationships-stop-the-blame-game.php
http://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/article_cdo/aid/565512/jewish/The-Blame-Game.htm

I also found a published study that apparently I have to pony up for (what bullshit is that?):
Shame and guilt: characterological vs. behavioral self-blame and their relationship to fear of intimacy
Here's a link about it with an abstract - if anyone was to send the whole thing my way - I'd really appreciate it.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&.. blah blah long ass urls

Gimme a V! ... "V!" ... Gimme an A! ... "A!" ... Gimme a ...

2009-07-11T20:27:52Z

Vasectomy!

I went and did it. The Diazepam helped with any nervousness I might have had, but frankly, I'm a pretty even keel kind of guy anyway.

The most painful part? They'd put a large tissue (like a paper towel folded in half) over my penis - running from hip to hip - to hold it out of the way. Then they taped over that. Removing the tape from my hips was the painful part.

The rest was pretty easy - a few twinges here and there, but nothing nearly as difficult as a shot from a needle. Even when they did use the needle.

Anyway, after a couple of tests to verify my sterility, at 6 weeks and then 10, Meek should be able to make an appointment to get that dang hormone rod out of her arm.

Loaned micro driver set

2009-06-29T02:48:25Z

I'm pretty sure I loaned out my micro screwdriver set, and I'm pretty sure it's to someone (I can't remember who!) on my friends list.

If you borrowed this set from me, could you let me know whether you're done with it and if I can get it back?

Thanks!

Date/Time Math

2009-06-15T20:10:31Z

Doing math with dates/times - programmaticly - is a pain in the ass.

Take a date/time, check to see if it's fri, sat or sun. Then set an allowed time that's either EOB on the next monday (for Sat and Sun) or the same time on the next monday (for friday).

This is effectively 1 business day.

Also: this must handle crossing months, even years.

Thanks to unixtime - this was much easier than it sounds, but it's still not fun.

PS: I got my stuff to work. At least, my test code finally works - now to work it into the bigger script where I'm going to put this to useful work.

This is why I'm scared of cops

2009-05-29T17:05:48Z

http://brainz.org/30-cases-extreme-police-brutality-and-blatant-misconduct/

Most of this isn't new to anyone.

I think it's sad that I've more to fear from the people who are paid to protect us, than from anything else. It's so easy for a cop to make a bad judgment call and then, well, totally fuck you up.

Perhaps even kill you.

And get away with it - as it would seem cops aren't held to the same level of expected judgment that everyone else is. In short, they're treated by the court system like kids, while the rest of us 'should know better'.

Be polite, insist on rights, say no to searches without a warrant, and do what they say - even if you think you don't have to - but clearly indicate it's via intimidation (having a gun and other weapons, and the power position leaves them in a situation where they only have to make a request to be intimating).

So true... lol

2009-05-17T14:51:36Z

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1518

Sometime during this past week...

2009-05-11T02:31:21Z

Alex turned into a toddler.

Long gone is the infant, and even some of the 'baby'.

Dude is walking from spot to spot, picking what he thinks is the easiest method from crawling or walking. And more and more often, now he's picking walking.

Course, he's a bit stiff legged, so it's kinda like a miniature, exuberantly happy and chatty zombie is roaming the house. Heh.

On a very related note, he's now figured out that sliding off laps, beds, chairs and even steps is best done feet first (finally!).

* I'm gonna have to get a new pic for Alex type posts - this one is /way/ dated now - being a very solidly infant pic.

eonen will love this...

2009-05-08T20:29:58Z

http://current.com/items/90029658_death-star-destroys-enterprise.htm

Funny quote

2009-05-07T22:52:00Z

"Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies."
-- Philosopher Voltaire when asked by a priest to renounce Satan.

GOP wants investigation of prev. administration? lols

2009-04-27T21:01:55Z

Breaking: GOP Calls for Investigation of Previous Administration
http://www.eyesonobama.com/blog/content/id_52433/title_Breaking-GOP-Calls-for-Investigation-of-Previous-Administration/

Compare this to Obama's current hands-off approach. He's not going to get involved, and would rather leave it to the /judiciary/ to decided what to do.

And then, we're comparing some dude's pardon by the president to torture authorized by the president. (if that didn't make sense, read the whole thing and follow the link).

Republicans are retarded. If they held to their planks, ideals, and supposed core there'd be /no reason/ for a libertarian party to even exist.

Saw this on a guys shirt

2009-04-20T20:47:02Z

$> cd /pub

$> more beer

The dude holds two jobs apparently - one for AT&T and another at a brewery.
That shirt is good to go for both jobs.

RT ticket count

2009-04-15T21:54:05Z

(This was cross posted in itprofessionals)

When dealing with a large ticket db in RT (Request Tracker), it's sometimes good to flush the db of some tickets.

RT /never/ deletes data from the dB. There's a 'plugin'/add-on or whatever that can though. RTx-Shredder.

However, if someone set's a script in action to 'shred' those tickets, one will occasionally want to check in on how it's going.

Hence this script:
cat /path/to/rt/sbin/count-tickets.sh

#!/bin/bash

Statuses=( new open stalled resolved rejected deleted )
if [ $1 ] ; then Statuses=( $* ) ; fi

for Status in ${Statuses[@]} ; do
  echo -en "$Status:\t"
  if [ ${#Status} -lt 7 ] ; then echo -en "\t" ; fi
  count=`echo "select count(*) from Tickets where Tickets.Status=\"$Status\";" | mysql rt3`
  count=`echo $count | awk '{print $2}'`
  echo -e "$count\t`date -d '7 hours ago' '+%D %T'`"
done

That script, of course, requires you to have my.cnf setup correctly or ran as root with no root mysql pw set.

One /can/ get the ticket count from RT for most any status - except for deleted.

We started with approx 55500 tickets in rejected status (spam!), and we're currently down to approx 11300. The shred process has been running for approx a week and a half, and it should finish sometime this friday evening. That's approx 1 ticket shredded per 17 seconds.

Also, here's the script I'm using to shred those tickets (long!):

cat /path/to/rt/sbin/shredder.sh

#!/bin/bash

usage()
{
cat << EOF

Usage: $0  [num] [wait] [until]
  Options:
    status - Ticket status name.  Required.
    num    - Number of tickets to shred at a time.  Default=5
    wait   - Number of seconds to wait between shred sets.  Default=1
    until  - How long to continue running until X tickets are remaining.  Default=n/a

  Examples:
    $0 rejected
      This will run continuously, shredding 5 tickets at a time, with a second pause between shreds.
    $0 deleted 10 1 5
      This will run until there's 5 or less tickets, shredding 10 at a time, with a second pause between shreds.

EOF
}

Statuses=( new open stalled resolved rejected deleted )
if ! [ $1 ] ; then usage ; exit 
else
  if ! [[ "${Statuses[*]}" =~ "$1" ]] ; then
    echo "Status $1 not recognized."
    echo "Statuses allowed: ${Statuses[*]}"
    exit
  fi
  status="$1"
fi

if [ $2 ] ; then
  num=$2
  if [ $num -lt 1 ] ; then echo "Use a value for num above 0 [zero]." ; exit ; fi
  if [ $num -gt 100 ] ; then echo "Use a value for num below 101." ; exit ; fi
else num=5
fi

if [ $3 ] ; then
  wait=$3
  if [ $wait -lt 0 ] ; then echo "Use a positive, or zero, value for wait." ; exit ; fi
  if [ $wait -gt 100 ] ; then echo "Use a value for wait below 101." ; exit ; fi
else wait=1
fi

if [ $4 ] ; then
  untl=$4
  if [ $wait -lt 0 ] ; then echo "Use a positive, or zero, value for until." ; exit ; fi
else untl=0
fi

numticketleft="`./count-tickets.sh $status | awk '{print $2}'`"
if [ $numticketleft -le $untl ] ; then
  echo "The number of tickets ($numticketleft) is equal or less than the until limit set ($untl). No work to do."
  exit
fi

shredcmd="./rtx-shredder --force --plugin 'Tickets=status,$status;limit,$num'"

echo -n "Started at:  " ; date +'%D %T %Z'

while [ $numticketleft -gt $untl ] ; do
  eval $shredcmd > /dev/null
  sleep $wait 
  numticketleft="`./count-tickets.sh $status | awk '{print $2}'`"
done

echo -n "Finished at: " ; date +'%D %T %Z'

I know that I could have use getopt or getopts for the options, but it wasn't really worth it.

Need a geek icon...

2009-04-13T18:51:17Z

My new fav one-liner:

while true ; do clear ; date ; echo ; ls -lh ; REPLY="" ; read -sn 1 -t 1 ; if [ "$REPLY" = "q" ] ; then break ; fi ; done

It'll watch a directories contents (via ls), prefixed with the current time. It'll refresh every second until you hit the 'q' key - or faster if you hit any other key.

Fan-freaking-tastic weather today

2009-04-07T03:36:18Z

I know it's gonna get worse mid-week, but I'm rolling around in the weather.

Meek spent the say outside with Alex, doors open... yeah, place smells good too.

I'm in a fantastic mood.

Story of a guy who also almost went postal

2009-04-05T16:03:07Z

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-04/confessions-of-a-man-who-almost-went-postal/full/

There's some comments at the end that wonder why these sprees are almost always by men. Some even indicate that we put toy dolls into girls hands and toy guns into boys, and our society inculcates men to be violent.

First off, let me simplify the whole thing and say I believe it's totally hormones and genetics - namely, testosterone. Historically and evolutionarily we're the protectors. The front line. When we face a danger, threat, or wrong against our own, we feel a need to act. A /very/ strong need, sometimes blinding. Our role in that case was to be a shield for the women and children.

I'm not saying women don't either, they can certainly act when they need to.

I'm also not saying it's a good thing that makes men better, quite the contrary. Imagine the wars and fights that break out for imaginary threats. Women, on average would only fight (as in, fight) an obvious wrong, and one that's nearby. Men are a bit more tuned to 'possible' threats and are quicker to act.

I'm not saying one is better than the other, nor am I saying that is always the case. These are generalities.

Anyway, to the comments.

There's been plenty of parents who make every attempt to raise their children gender-agnostic; one case in point I recall is a lesbian mother who provided lots of toys (and no dolls) and walk in the girls room to discover their toddler coddling a toy fire truck wrapped up in a blanket.

Or boys that pick up a stick and innately know what to do with them: whack!

My parents never provided me with guns toys as a kid, until I was in middle to late grade school, and then they were only squirt guns and the like. That's not to say I didn't know what to do with guns - I watched movies, westerns, action flicks, etc.

But to blame our society for making men they way they are, or for the fact that guns are available is silly. In Britain, for example, guns are banned. And they /still/ have tons of deaths - knifes or outnumbered odds. Violent people will do violent things.

Anyway, I'd wanted to comment on the thread but refused to register, so I posted here instead.

The article itself is great. Plus the conclusion - it's simple and on the spot.

Also, related:
http://www.examiner.com/x-3704-Columbia-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m4d5-Loonies-should-not-squelch-talk-about-armed-resistance