bytex64.net

This morning in class I tried to contact my home machine in an attempt to retreive an assignment I was working on. For some reason, the DNS resolution failed. I managed to contact it through the IP address on afraid.org, but it was still puzzling. Later, at work I tried to contact one of the sub-sites at home. Nothing. Then bytex64.net. Nothing. At this point, alarm bells went off in my head. "Right," I thought. "My domain expired on September 11."

Doh.

So after some wrangling with ev1's homepage (which now contains no mention of how to log into their domain registration system), I got it paid up for another year, and everything's copacetic.

A while back, my mom dropped off a bunch of vegetable goodness on my doorstep, and a week later, I was still puzzled as to what to do with it. I wound up making a sort of Pico de Gallo, and I just had some with a frozen chimichanga. Let me tell you, it was fan-freaking-tastic. As soon as I remember exactly what was in it, I'll post the recipe.

Oh, my camera came in yesterday. I immediately went out and bought the necessary accessories for it (4 2000mAh NiMH batteries with charger, 128MB Memory Stick, and USB Cable), and wound up spending $75 on my $61 camera. I suppose that when the auction says, "It comes with no extras except the owners manual...", I should take that to heart when figuring out how much it will *really* cost me. Oh, well. I'm very satisfied with the camera. It works as USB storage, too, so the Memory Stick will not be wasted. Who wants to boot DSL off of their camera? I do.

Since I really like how smooth and simple mike's mobilepix gallery turned out, I rewrote myself a new version. Why did I rewrite it? Well, the code is on a machine at Mike's place, and in the time I would have to wait to ask mike to get it for me, I could rewrite it. So, I did. I haven't actually caught up on all the functionality, yet, but I've added a few things, like pop-up comments and EXIF tag information (which will probably exist in some other form soon. The pop-ups are pretty bothersome).

After Mike corrected me on a temporal goof in my last post, he said that "It doesn't seem right that you can edit your blog." I replied that it's my blog and I can do whatever I want with it, but he brought up a good point. If I edit something after it's already up, it might confuse people. However, I've figured out a way to have my cake and eat it too. Revisions.

When I edit an entry now, it creates a new copy instead of overwriting the old one. Old revisions can be accessed with the "revision" thinger in the post title. Go ahead, try it out, and find a choice quote from Dinosaur Comics. I haven't seen other blog software do this, but I haven't looked very hard. At the very least, it's a tool for those of us with failing memories. :)

The day started off like any other. It was early morning. I rolled out of bed, gulped down some breakfast, and shouldered my backpack, prepared to go to class. I had some extra time, so I stopped by Mike's room. He had the TV on, which was odd for the time of day. I had asked him what was going on.

He replied that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. The scene on TV was one of mass confusion. Nobody knew why or how this had happened. Many assumed that it was a tragic mistake. When the second plane hit, it all became very clear. This was not an accident. This was a deliberate attack. Mike and I watched as the towers gave way, collapsing not only the twin towers of the world's financial center, but also the peace of mind of every man, woman, and child in America.

This is what I remember.

Ok, I don't normally get excited about things like this, but I just found out that Nancy has a birthday on Saturday. So what's so special about Saturday? Well, Saturday is September 10th, and as a certified otaku, I'd be neglectful in my duties if I didn't tell you that Mizuno Ami shares the same birthday. Not that the two really share any similarities... at all. I just thought it was interesting.

LIS201 is looking to be one of the most boring classes on the face of the planet. All of the readings thus far are about as interesting as the study of grain patterns in asphalt. Furthermore, I caught this little oddity in lab on Tuesday (paraphrased because I do not have a cybernetic memory). Keep in mind that we're using (shudder) Microsoft Access.

Mr. Downey: A lot of times the Memo data type is called the blob data type. How many of you have a blog or have read a blog?
*several people raise their hands*
Mr. Downey: Ah, alright. Well, when you enter things into the blog, they'll use the blob data type to store it. This is why they're called "blogs." Blob to blog.

At the time, I was too drowsy to think about it, and I wrote it off as a bad attempt at a joke. I hope it was a joke. The more I think about it, though, the more I think he was dead serious, and horribly misinformed. For those of you who don't know the etymology of "blog," you have some reading to do.

My camera is in the mail. Or I think it is. The USPS Track & Confirm system is remarkably non-useful. It consists of two main states:

1. "The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper or shipping partner on ... to expect your package for mailing."
2. "Your package has been delivered."

To add insult to injury, the system is only updated once a day. At night. So if my package gets delivered on Friday, the website won't reflect the fact until Saturday morning. Thanks, guys! Work like this couldn't have been done any worse by a couple of undergrads in CS. Sheesh.

I have obtained a small sample size bottle of TAG BODY SPRAY FOR MEN. That's exactly how it's printed on the bottle. No lower case or punctuation. Perhaps they feel the need to differentiate themselves from "Tag Body Spray for Lemurs and Other Small Primates" or "Tag Body Spray for Ford Focus Hatchbacks." Grammatical issues aside, the stuff is (and these are the words I love to see) EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE. First two ingredients: Isobutane and denatured alcohol. Also on the list: Butane and Propane. The one ounce of the stuff I've got should be enough to blow up a small car. Ok, maybe not, but that would be really cool. I think it'll make a fine spud gun propellant.

Now all I have to do is turn my desk into a spud gun Transformer. :)

From now on, I'm going to try to be more entertaining with this blog. This means more humor, and less whining and technical details.

Pffft. Fuck that. I'm going to continue to geek out hardcore, and there's nothing any of you can do to persuade me otherwise. Case in point, I got a Linksys WRT54G the other day, to replace the aging Belkin wired router that my roommates had been using. The only problem was that we have DSL, and the PPPoE login information was nowhere to be found. Without this information, the new router was useless. Fortunately, I had a stroke of inspiration, and checked out the HTML code for the web-based PPPoE configuration on the Belkin router. Sure enough, the password was right there as the value of a password input element. Unencrypted. Good news for me. Bad news for anyone with one of these Belkin routers.

Most of yesterday was consumed by shopping of the electronics variety. I got my WRT54G, Jen got a laptop, and Nancy got to sit in the passenger's seat. Since Best Buy couldn't price match $200 in rebates from the Circuit City ad, they matched the free printer instead. The sales droid even tried to sell her extra print cartridges and one of those gold-plated Geek Squad USB cables. She declined. Good girl. Next, since I was simultaneously bored, lacking in sound judgement, and woefully forgetful of the past, we went to Market Place Mall.

"You'll never see a more wretched hive of scum and villainy," I remarked as we entered the sliding doors. Oh, wait, no. Wrong story. What I meant to say was that going to the mall with two girls was a huge mistake. We visited not less than three clothing stores, two stores full of useless crap, and far too much time staring at manga. In fairness, we did go to Kitchens, where I stared at all the very sharp, very shiny, very expensive knives. Throughout the whole trip, Nancy had this strange fixation with dressing me up in women's clothing. No, Nancy, I will not put on a dress. I am not your personal bishounen play doll/pix/bisshie_doll.jpg
that you can groom to look like a passable imitation of Yura-samahttp://images.quizilla.com/A/AtheistGirl/1051070549_cturesyura.jpg
from Psycho Le Cemu. At least not without compensation. :)

So anyway, this WRT54G will do almost everything short of making sliced bread. I'm using OpenWrt on it, which is refreshing for two reasons:

1. The system acts like an actual linux installation, and not a wireless router with some neat extra features. It's not user friendly. I like that.
2. The MOTD explains how to make a White Russian.

As an example of the non-user friendliness part, the default installation was smart enough to use the nvram values I had for PPPoE, but not smart enough to actually configure it correctly. I spent over an hour actually trying to figure out how to set it up correctly. Oh, and they store the login information in plaintext in the nvram, but any would-be attackers will have to get through a SSH login to get to it. :)

I am currently erasing the noisiest SCSI drive in the known universe. It sounds like this. Only four more hours to go. Also, I dedicate this file into the public domain, though I don't think it's good enough even for that.

Since I made reference to it in the last post, I figured I'd explain to you my "Fastest Deletion after Download" list. In this case, "fastest" is rated by how long I sat and watched it before giving up in disgust and wiping it from my hard drive. In several of these cases, I downloaded a pack of episodes, and didn't even watch all of them. Note that I don't count honest mistakes in here (Like the time I downloaded the entire Xenosaga series... subtitled in French), just good, honest poor quality entertainment. Here it is, the cream of the crap:

• #4 - Naruto. 40 episodes watched. Yes, it took a while, but I finally quit this show after realizing that episodes 10-40 were 70% pointless fighting and 30% pointless crying. A lot of people have told me, "Oh, it gets better after that." Honestly, though, how many episodes should I have to sit through before it starts getting good? Forty episodes? Shit, most shows don't even get forty episodes. Some of the best stuff I've seen told a compelling, entertaining story in 12 episodes. Some have done it in six. I refuse to sit through this much poorly-done plot in the absence of any fanservice. DELETED.
• #3 - Sister Princess RePure. Three episodes watched. Mind-numbingly boring show based on the dating simulation game of the same name. The first half of the show is what you'd consider a normal show, while the last half focuses on one character in excruciatingly boring (and sometimes confusing) detail. It would be OK if the show part was entertaining, but it's just not. DELETED.
• #2 - Futari wa Pretty Cure. One episode watched. Much like Pokemon, Power Rangers, and any show geared towards kids, this show is all about the merch. The show features a pair of girls who come upon enchanted cell phones that accept power-up cards by sliding them through a credit-card style slot on the cellphone. The whole show is like some sort of children's fast-track indoctrination into Japanese consumer culture. The rest of it is pretty standard mahou shoujo fare, and fails miserably to stand out from any other shoujo anime I've ever watched. DELETED.
• #1 - The Meaty McMeat Show. Three or four minutes watched (of a 99 minute show). I'm rather enthusiastic about content that's been released freely, but in this case, you get what you pay for. I honestly watched this for three or four minutes, and felt like vomiting afterwards. Unfortunately, I can't explain it, so you'll just have to see for yourself. Since I'm a merciful person, I've decided not to link you. If you're that much of a masochist, you'll just have to find it yourself. DELETED.

I think there have been other things, too, but they were too short-lived to remember. Or then there's stuff like Live Action Sailormoon, which I should have nuked after the thoroughly dissapointing final episode, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. :)

Last night I dug out my old 14" monitor to hook up to my media machine. The monitor itself is crap. It barely does 800x600, and does so with a quite audible whine. The guns are also drifting quite a bit, so using it at this resolution is somewhat of a dodgy experience. At 640x480, though, it performs fine. This is also the perfect resolution for video. So basically, what I've got is a relatively crisp TV screen.

To prevent the insanity of another mouse and keyboard, I'm using synergy to share my mouse and keyboard between screens. It's pretty slick. It even adjusts for the fact that one screen is almost half the vertical resolution of the other, scaling the mouse position seamlessly (A trick that dual-head X would do well to learn). Another fun trick I found was that you can specify an alternate screen for the compositor window in cinelerra. This way, I can run the timeline editor and such on the larger, remote screen, and the compositor (which does the video display) on the smaller, local display. I also use the display to watch videos, and redirect the audio back to my other machine with nas. I just found out about this new Xdmx thing, which is supposed to allow Xinerama-style stuff on different machines, but I haven't had a chance to mess with it, yet.

But I did wind up finding a camera on eBay. Sony CyberShot DSC-P31. Unfortunately, I can't even send the money 'till Tuesday due to the combination of having to change my address at the bank, and the bank not being open on Labor Day. *shrug*. I'm a patient man.

So, like a fool, I browsed the "Slice of Life" genre at AnimeSuki. "Oh, I like this genre," I thought. I found Kanon, which I'd heard such self-deprecating neurotic luminaries as Fred Gallagher talk about. So I figured I'd give it a go. As the opening sequence played, I suddenly remembered Sister Princess RePure, which holds the number 3 spot for fastest deletion after download. It was literally a documentary about a bunch of girls. And not the good kind of documentary with naked pillow fights, either. I watched three episodes and deleted it. So far, Kanon seems to be a bit more entertaining, though. At least the characters have some freaking personality, and there seems to be some vestige of a plot.

I went home for some food, and got some prime footage of the Half-Life version of the epic battle between Pirates, Ninjas, and Robots, and my brother smoking a one foot long doobie. (Hint: It wasn't really a doobie) Look forward to that in the next VFS.

There was something I needed to write about, but I forgot what it was. It may have had something to do with Jen and Nancy. Or Marcin. Or York Peppermint Patties. I forget.

Lately, I've decided that I need to find a small, inexpensive digital camera, since I seem to be one of the only people without one built into my phone. This doesn't really bother me, since I don't think I'd ever use the camera and my phone in conjunction with one another. I just want something that I can use to take pictures of the weird stuff I come across from day to day, much the same way Jay Tamboli does.

For example, I was checking out at AM-KO, the local all-inclusive asian grocery store, and they had these "ear cleaners" for sale. For $1.19, you get a pencil attached to a metal rod with several metal disks on it. The disks were curved in such a way that (I guess) they'd carve out earwax as you pull the thing out of your ear. I can only imagine what damage that could cause in the wrong hands.

I saw a camera in the Circuit City flyer that looked pretty good on paper. It was a Polaroid 3.2 megapixel camera for $59 after rebate. It's nothing special. 16MB onboard memory, SD slot, USB interface. There were a lot of positive reviews on Circuit City's website, but I'm guessing a lot of those people had never owned a digital camera before. I went to Circuit city and tried it out. First, the shell is cheezy, and the buttons are sloppy. The camera is slow, and I'm pretty sure I locked it up while I was playing with it. I think I'll just get an older model on eBay.

(Un)fortunately, there's a plethora of models to choose from, and the digital camera arena is one I've not really followed closely. Most of my experience has been with Sony models, which have been quite solid in my experience, but are quite out of my price range. Ditto for Kodak. Also, if I want something that works with Linux, I'm pretty much shooting in the dark, unless I get a media reader. (Hah, get it? Shooting in the dark. It's a camera pun. Oh, damn it's late.)

Oh, yeah, I had a fun time shopping with Jen and Nancy. I think. It's not like there was a whole lot we did. Jen and I checked Office Depot for laptops, Circuit City for cameras, then joined up with Nancy at Meijer to figure out how many tasty things you can get for under $1. Quite a bit, it turns out.

Um, Yan's place, poker, Sonic the Motherf'n Hedgehog, Day of the Dead. I'm too tired to put those thoughts into sentences, so use your imagination. 'night.