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By cormander
I’m sorry phone, but it looks like you are about to be replaced. Your screen on the outside has been broken for quite some time, and I have to open my phone to see who is calling me. In order to do that without actually answering it, I have to open you slowly to peek inside, much like I’m opening a paper bag with something disgusting inside. Your battery life has really gone down lately, and over the past few weeks you’ve decided to just turn yourself off at random. That has most definitely been the last straw. I can’t have a phone that is electronically unavailable on a whim.
So, I await payday to replace you. Don’t worry, I won’t replace you with a smart phone. I already use a computer about half of each day of my life; I don’t need to be carrying one around with me at all times. So take comfort in the fact that you’re still good enough for me, despite your flaws caused by a long time of use. I wish I could fix you, but it is probably just easier to replace you. Maybe I’ll get a phone exactly like you if that will make you feel better, make both of us feel better. So farewell.
By cormander
I’ve been hemming and hawing on whether or not to change the license for my RavenCore software from GPLv2 to something else. There is a lot to consider, and of all the licenses I have looked at, none of them do exactly what I want.
The disadvantage of the GPL license is that it limits freedom in the form of disallowing other developers from using GPL code in their software, if the software they write is not released under the GPL as well. This is a problem for users as not everyone wishes to release their own code under the GPL.
The disadvantage of the BSD style licenses is that they place no restrictions whatsoever on reproducing modified source code when changes to the software are published. This is a problem for me as it is my goal to keep the RavenCore project open in the sense that changes made to RavenCore that are published by other people remain open to everyone else.
The LGPL license would be perfect for me, except that it is too fuzzy to use. The LGPL talks about linking and machine code, and since RavenCore is Perl code, and the idea of linking in the world of Perl is less obvious than it is in a compiler language such as C, questions are raised. Things become even less clear when your program is not even written in the same language as RavenCore, yet your program couples with it via the API. Is your program a derivative work or not? That’s a scary question, legally speaking.
Today I almost just said screw it and put the BSD license in there; but then realized the license is short enough, maybe I could modify the 2nd clause to instead of having binary format reproduce the copyright notice, rewrite that clause to require binary format be accompanied by source form. But at that point it wouldn’t be the BSD license anymore, so lets call it the RSD license (RavenCore Software Distribution, rather than Berkeley).
I looked up RSD to see if it was already an acronym for anything, and here we go:
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) – A pain syndrome caused by an abnormal sympathetic nervous reflex.
You know what? All this licensing crap gives me RSD; a nervous reflex in my abdomen, and it’s very painful.
Perhaps the irony of this is too good to pass up, and I should actually make an RSD license to license RavenCore under.
By cormander
I’m into my 6th class of online college and I can’t hold it in anymore. If anything bugs me about online college, it is how everyone agrees with each other. More often than not you’ll see a reply to someone’s discussion question response start with “I agree”, or “I totally agree”. Every now and again there is a “I disagree”, and it’s usually me that’s the one who is posting the disagreement!
Seriously, these classes are full of a bunch of “Yes” people. A big part of each class is the discussion forum, it’s online, and everyone is nice to each other. It doesn’t make any sense. There are no trolls, no arguing, no personal insults, just everyone happily agreeing with each other.
If you ask me, they’re not facilitating a real internet environment.
I’ll admit that I’m happy that there are no personal insults flying around, but people not butting heads at all just isn’t right. Criticism isn’t a negative thing, people.
What’s sad is, I rarely ever get a reply when I disagree with someone, and when I do, it’s usually from the professor.
By cormander
Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you that texting while driving increases your risk of an automobile accident. But in this case, I will refuse to call it an automobile accident, and instead, only refer to it as an automobile crash. In my opinion, a crash caused by stupidity isn’t an accident.
I read this article: Texting Raises Crash Risk 23 Times, Study Finds. Well, 23 times more likely, wow. I don’t know what else to say other than, don’t text while you drive, period.
An interview quote from the above article: “I’m pretty sure that someday it’s going to come back to bite me”
No, it won’t come back to bite you. It’s going to come back and KILL you, and probably someone else as well.
By cormander
Now I’m not sure if this is from bad coding on part of the hudson FTPPublisher plugin or from java.net’s URI.create, but:
Connecting to rpm.cormander.com
FATAL: null
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
at java.net.URI.create(URI.java:842)
at java.net.URI.resolve(URI.java:1028)
at com.zanox.hudson.plugins.FTPPublisher.perform(FTPPublisher.java:131)
at hudson.tasks.BuildStepCompatibilityLayer.perform(BuildStepCompatibilityLayer.java:56)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractRunner.performAllBuildStep(AbstractBuild.java:379)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractRunner.performAllBuildStep(AbstractBuild.java:367)
at hudson.model.Build$RunnerImpl.post2(Build.java:183)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractRunner.post(AbstractBuild.java:352)
at hudson.model.Run.run(Run.java:958)
at hudson.model.Build.run(Build.java:112)
at hudson.model.ResourceController.execute(ResourceController.java:93)
at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:118)
Caused by: java.net.URISyntaxException: Illegal character in path at index 7: Vanilla Kernel 32bit
at java.net.URI$Parser.fail(URI.java:2809)
at java.net.URI$Parser.checkChars(URI.java:2982)
at java.net.URI$Parser.parseHierarchical(URI.java:3066)
at java.net.URI$Parser.parse(URI.java:3024)
at java.net.URI.<init>(URI.java:578)
at java.net.URI.create(URI.java:840)
... 11 more
Emphasis on the: Illegal character in path at index 7: Vanilla Kernel 32bit
Well, assuming we start counting from zero, which we do in an array index (and strings are still arrays in addition to being objects in java), the illegal character is a space. What, can’t convert a space to a %20 for me? Renaming my project to Vanilla%20Kernel%2032bit would look kind of ugly.
I ended up renaming it to kernel-32bit, and that has fixed the problem… sort of. Then there came this:
Connecting to rpm.cormander.com
file:/var/build/workspace/kernel-32bit/kernel-32bit
ERROR: Failed to upload files
hudson.util.IOException2: remote file operation failed
at hudson.FilePath.act(FilePath.java:645)
at hudson.FilePath.act(FilePath.java:633)
at hudson.FilePath.list(FilePath.java:1038)
at com.zanox.hudson.plugins.FTPPublisher.perform(FTPPublisher.java:144)
at hudson.tasks.BuildStepCompatibilityLayer.perform(BuildStepCompatibilityLayer.java:56)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractRunner.performAllBuildStep(AbstractBuild.java:379)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractRunner.performAllBuildStep(AbstractBuild.java:367)
at hudson.model.Build$RunnerImpl.post2(Build.java:183)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractRunner.post(AbstractBuild.java:352)
at hudson.model.Run.run(Run.java:958)
at hudson.model.Build.run(Build.java:112)
at hudson.model.ResourceController.execute(ResourceController.java:93)
at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:118)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Expecting Ant GLOB pattern, but saw '/home/hudson/rpmbuild/TARGETS/kernel.i686/*rpm'. See http://ant.apache.org/manual/CoreTypes/fileset.html for syntax
at hudson.FilePath.glob(FilePath.java:1059)
at hudson.FilePath.access$000(FilePath.java:155)
at hudson.FilePath$24.invoke(FilePath.java:1040)
at hudson.FilePath$24.invoke(FilePath.java:1038)
at hudson.FilePath$FileCallableWrapper.call(FilePath.java:1783)
at hudson.remoting.UserRequest.perform(UserRequest.java:103)
at hudson.remoting.UserRequest.perform(UserRequest.java:47)
at hudson.remoting.Request$2.run(Request.java:236)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:441)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
Long story short, turns out ant doesn’t like full path names, which means the rpmbuild stuff needs to exist within the hudson workspace. A security mesure I would assume. Anyway, I set the %_topdir for the hudson user to be %(pwd)/rpmbuild and manually created that directory (and the necessary subdirectories within it) and built the RPM and ftp’d it over just fine, sort of.
I was using the ravencore project to test since it only takes a minute to do, rather than two hours. This is what the file on the remote ftp server ended up being:
./ravencore/2009-06-29_09-59-47/file:/var/www/.hudson/jobs/ravencore/workspace/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/ravencore-0.3.6-0.1246291028.noarch.rpm
I really expected it to be:
./ravencore/ravencore-0.3.6-0.1246291028.noarch.rpm
I’m gonna have to try out the scp plugin instead to see if I can avoid this.
By cormander
Today, I got mad at the cap locks key my laptop. It now no longer works.
No, I didn’t bust it in a fit of rage. I carefully removed the insides of it so now pressing it no longer turns on the CAP LOCKS.
So, goodbye cap locks. You’re something I won’t be missing.
By cormander
Some tell the time by the position of the sun in the sky. Others tell time by how hungry they are (or aren’t). Most of us just use a clock in one form or another.
Me, on the other hand, can tell time by looking at traffic:
* 6:00 AM
- No cars on the way to the freeway. Takes very little time to get there.
- Cars driving on the freeway are generally going the speed limit.
It’s early, no one is in a rush to get to work. Besides, it’s dark, why risk it?
* 6:45 AM
- Very few cars on the way to the freeway. Take very little time to get there.
- Cars driving on the freeway are going the speed limit, with a few going over.
It’s still early, still no rush to get to work. And it’s still a little on the dark side.
* 7:30 AM
- Lots of cars on the way to the freeway. Takes a good ten minutes to get there.
- About 1/3 of the cars on the freeway are speeding, some more ridiculously then others.
It’s getting a little later. Some of these people traded in a quick shower to sleeping more and are making up for it on the road. Since it’s not that dark anymore, why not go a little faster, right?
* 8:15 AM
- Might as well be considered a traffic jam. Takes between 10 and 25 minutes to get to the freeway.
- Freeway is overcrowded. About 2/3 of the cars are speeding, most of which are at least 10mph over the limit.
Something kept these people at home this morning. Their alarm clock didn’t go off, or they didn’t set it (which is just an excuse, they didn’t hear it or just flat out ignored it); their kids missed the bus to school and they had to take them there first; or they hate their job and subconsciously drag themselves in the morning to get themselves fired for always being in late.
And because of this, they’re really booking it to get to work. Also, since it’s bright as day by now, people think they can see everything.
* 9:00 AM
- Traffic jam. By this time, some idiot who doesn’t know how to drive causes an accident (whether or not they’re actually in it is another story). Be prepared for a wait of up to 45 minutes just to GET to the freeway. Might as well just wait until 10AM to leave.
- Not a whole lot of traffic on the freeway. Just about everyone is speeding. Beware of accidents by the idiots who actually made it to the freeway.
* 10 AM – Noon
- Very few cars on the way to the freeway. Take very little time to get there.
- Very few cars on the freeway. About 1/3 of the people are speeding. Things are slowing down b/c of all the cops on the side of the road who have pulled people over.
* Noon – 4 PM
- Lots of cars on the way to the freeway. People are taking their lunch breaks, others are shopping, and some just woke up and hopped into their car to go somewhere.
- Not a whole lot of cars on the freeway. Everyone is speeding because the cops got bored and aren’t around anymore.
* 4 PM – 5 PM
- Lots of cars on the way to the freeway, but not too bad yet. A good portion of people are getting off of work but most of them are still staring at the clock, just waiting for it to hit 5.
- Freeway is starting to get overcrowded, but that doesn’t mean that they’re slowing down either.
* 5 PM – 7 PM
- Traffic jam, and not because there was an accident this time (although it does occasionally happen). Everyone, EVERYONE is trying to get away from the grind. Businesses across the area suddenly become desolate.
- Traffic jam on the freeway. Cars are bumper to bumper for miles on end.
I hate rush hour traffic. I hate how they call it rush “hour”, it’s not accurate at all, rush hour is always at least two hours.
* 7 PM – 10 PM
- Very few cars on the way to the freeway. Takes very little time to get there.
- It’s getting dark, but that doesn’t seem to slow people down this time. It’s after rush hour, so people are enjoying the fact that the actually can speed now. Others speed because they have such a busy life and want to cram everything into the day … they have to shave time somewhere.
* 10 PM – Midnight
- No cars on the way to the freeway. Takes very little time to get there.
- Not a whole lot of cars on the freeway, but no one is going the speed limit (except me and really old people). Cops are everywhere.
* Midnight – 6 AM
- I don’t drive during this time. At least not more then a few times in the past 4 years.
Conclusion:
The later in the day it gets, the more likely it is for people to speed. I’d hate to find out how bad it really is between midnight and 6 AM.
By cormander
I have a ‘98 Dodge Caravan that I got almost 3 years ago. It was given to us by my wife’s parents in exchange for our Nissan.
When we had to move away from Hawaii and didn’t have the money for it, I took out a loan on it for $6,725 (the then value of it).
Today I have concluded that since we bought it, I have paid around $5,000 in maintenance costs. Half of that was a brand new transmission, the rest were odds and ends. Today I have to drop another $700+ to replace an axle, two tires, fix an oil leak, among other things. The last time I had it in the shop was about 2 or three months ago where I had the electrical system fixed, and the oil changed.
It seems like every few months I have to drop a load of money to keep it going. It all adds up to the point where you know you really need a new car when the upkeep for it has tallied up to be almost what you paid for it in the first place.
I sure hope I get a good bonus after the Holidays. This Van will last us a lot longer and cost us much less if I didn’t have to drive it to and from work every single day.
By cormander
If you ask me, “working” the stock market is no different then rolling dice in a casino. Sure, there are real world strategies on when to buy/sell, but it all boils down to (and you can quote me on this):
“Gambling is legal in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and New York City”
Truthfully I’m a little freaked out by the whole recent economic down-turn, but feel no guilt. I’m angry, actually, especially when you read about the market getting inflated with phantom stock via naked short selling (see http://www.deepcapture.com/)
Please, please outlaw that nonsense.
In regards to the failing bank industry:
Shame on the lenders. They got too greedy and tried to stretch the dollar far greater then it would ever go. I’ve never taken out a loan I couldn’t afford. I’ve been offered many, but turned them all down. But I’m not everyone, people fall for it and it finally bit them in the ass. Well, its biting the rest of us in the ass now too.
Shame on the people who took those loans. Now I know that some bankruptcy is legit, you might have lost your job, you might be a victim of our bad bad bad health care industry, but I’ve known far too many people who’s defaulted on credit cards and other types of loans who were simply living beyond their means.
But, since I have no control over what is happening in the world, I’ll just continue my normal routine. No sense in getting all riled up over something you can’t change. Just have to hope for the best.
By cormander
I’ve been saying it for a long time, and I’m finally going to start keeping a list of reasons NOT to use SuSE-Linux which is everything that I come across that is just off-the-wall crazy shit caused by one of Novell’s SuSE Linux distribution.
So far, I just have one thing there, and I’ll search my memory later on to add stuff that I can remember. Anything new I come across gets added to this list.
I’ve always not liked SuSE Linux. I had to stomach listening about it from Charlie, one of my sister-in-law’s (now ex) husband, rave on how great it is. I had to live through a year of using it at a previous job. And now that I find myself 8 months into another job that is mostly a SuSE shop, after many many years of using a variety of other different linux distributions, I don’t think my opinion is very bias anymore. I’m not much of a fan of Debian Linux either, but I’m to the point where even Debian is more tolerable then SuSE, and coming from me that’s saying a lot.
