Well, we’re still waiting for the anklebiter. No sign of him yet, though…..

The new job has been good, and very interesting. I’ve been handed a ton of interesting responsibilities, included setting up a server for hosting one of the applications. Good stuff. Tomorrow will be spent migrating Turbine applications from version 2.1 to 2.2, then next week we’ll migrate to 2.3. Hot stuff….

I’ve decided to get a little crazy with my linux machine since Mandrake died. I’ve downloaded the latest version of Gentoo, and I still have to find the time to do the install. There isn’t a graphical installer, meaning you have to declare the disk partitions yourself, then mount the various filesystems from the CDs. Geeky. There’s nothing really important on that machine any more (the Mac holds most of the “important” stuff these days, and since I’m not working at home, I don’t _need_ a functioning linux environment at the moment). With me luck….this is should be quite a ride….

Posted on 1 May 2003

Well, it’s true. My linux machine is dead. Dead-dead-deadski. After one last feeble fsck attempt, I will reinstall Mandrake 9. Don’t know when though, with the anklebiter countdown started.

Posted on 30 April 2003

The new job has been going well. After a day of extreme programming with a co-worker, I’ve been set loose on the application. Despite the overall complexity of the framework being used, I’ve got a decent handle on things. My only complaint so far is that my mp3s aren’t playing so well on the machine….lots of burps, farts and hisses….

In other news, my Mandrake 9 machine at home went kablooey last night. Unfixable file system errors. Nice. I recently made a backup of important files though, so I will probably just reinstall instead of trying to salvage anything…

In anklebiter news…..no baby yet. Jen is still doing well. We’re pushing for this Friday (the actual due date) so I don’t miss much work 😉

Posted on 30 April 2003

Slashdot has posted an article (well, two, actually) about the release of the Unix-Haters Handbook (Note: the PDF has disappeared from the above page, thanks to being Slashdotted). Regardless of what you think about Unix (or any *nix), it’s a good, funny read. I’m about halfway through it, and so far, the funniest part has been some unique Unix error messages like:


$ drink <bottle; opener
bottle: cannot open
opener: not found


or


$ man: why did you get a divorce?
man:: Too many arguments


For those of you on linux boxes, before you fire up a terminal and try these, keep in mind the book was written, oh, about ten years ago. Lots of these little quirks have been ironed out.

Also, in case you’re a linux, Windows, or Mac disciple, keep in mind the authors of the book did most of their work on OSes like Multics and machines powered by Lisp. I got a good chuckle looking over the /. discussion, seeing all the linux radicals claiming the whole thing was just M$ FUD and that Windows was no better. Perhaps they should at least skim the book’s forward before they open their traps…

This page may be a bit quiet for the next few days, as I start the new job in earnest tomorrow, and I’ve got a bit more coding for my consulting project to finish up. Then, of course, there’s the impending birth, which could happen any moment now….

Posted on 27 April 2003

I finally got the sound working on my linux machine at the new job today. The secret, you ask? Well, if you have a Soundblaster Live 5.1 card (shipped with many newer Dells), save yourself a lot of hassle and go directly here and download the Open Sound System driver for that card. Sadly, the driver isn’t free (as in beer). There is a bit of a licensing fee ($20). You can download the driver for evaluation, but it will cease working after x number of days. Still worth it though if you’re stuck with the Soundblaster.

Posted on 22 April 2003

I’ve started the ramp-up to my new job over the past few days. Mostly I’ve just been setting up my workstation….a Dell Dimension with a Pentium 4 2GHz processor, .5 GB RAM, running RedHat 7.3. I’m not too chucked about RH 7.3…my preference would have been Mandrake 9, since it seems to be better suited to newer systems from the get-go. I spent this morning trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to get the Soundblaster Live soundcard working properly. A brief rundown of the steps:

1. Download emu10k1 driver source code.
2. Configure and build the source, and install the driver modules.
3. Reboot.
4. Attempt to listen to an MP3. No luck.
5. Download the ALSA emu10k1 driver and utilities.
6. Configure and build the driver and utilities.
7. Reboot.
8. Start XMMS and hear lots of scratches and burps.

That, my friends, is called progress.

I also talked with my new boss for a bit about implementing some aspects of Extreme Programming to speed my transition without stalling development. While Extreme Programming covers a whole development methodology, we will focus on pair programming at the beginning. Basically, I’ll sit next to the senior development, both of us working on the same machine, and we’ll code together. It’s an interesting concept, and people tend to love it or hate it. I used it a bit at my first programming job for the similiar purpose of getting me up to speed on the technologies, and it worked quite well. Obviously, it is dependent on the dynamic between the two developers, but I think as long as we don’t hate each other (which isn’t the case yet, after a few days) it should work well.

Posted on 21 April 2003

This is a headline from Sport Illustrated:

Kansas receives permission to talk with Self

I wonder who they had to ask?

Posted on 16 April 2003

Betcha never thought you’d read something here about the University of Pittsburgh basketball team….but here it is, my $.02 about the new team’s new coach. While it’s good for Jamie Dixon that he was named head coach (and the players, who lobbied hard for him), it’s a bit odd that a team that is now considered a national power (despite their early exit from the NCAA tournament) would almost immediately hire an untested coach who was passed over by two smaller colleges. But Dixon comes with Ben Howland’s stamp of approval, so perhaps he won’t be all that bad.

Posted on 15 April 2003

It looks as if life can return to normal (did ever leave?). Most of the major news sites have toned down their emphasis on the war in Iraq and said that the major military action is now over and the coalition will now work on rebuilding Iraq. This is great, but where is Saddam Hussein? I don’t think any in the intelligence community would claim he was killed, and there’s a good chance he fled to Syria, or is well-hidden in one of his spacious bunkers.

Of course, even though everyone would like you to believe that the US is not going to unleash the dogs of military action on Syria, but the rhetoric sounds very similiar to what we heard before the Iraqi invasion. Of course, for you conspiracy theorists out there, Israeli PM Ariel Sharon has given you a bit of fodder. I don’t think our military can rest easy quite yet….

Posted on 15 April 2003

Jen and I went to Cooper’s Rock yesterday. I’m fairly sure it was my first time on rock since our trip to Bishop last year. That has to be a record. It was fantastic day….warm sun, cool breeze. Oddly, there’s not a leaf to be found on the trees in the forest.

It was so good to be on rock again…to feel the crystals of gritstone under my fingers…to work hard to move over stone smoothly. After so much time on plastic, I forgot what a joy it is to really rock climb. I’ve been much more motivated to climb lately (after several months of little climbing and lots of bike riding), and yesterday just stoked the fire a bit more. I’m not sure I’m going to start “training” again, but I certainly want to climb a lot again. I was pleasantly surprised that I could do most of the circuit of moderate to hard problems that I did last year. Of course, it didn’t include anything all that hard, and I certainly didn’t project anything, but it was reassuring nonetheless.

In other news…there are some other updates on the site, especially with the anklebiter section. We’ve been busy getting things ready for the “Big Day”.

Posted on 14 April 2003