http://drwho.virtadpt.net/index.php Memories of things that haven't happened yet, predictions of things that have come to pass. en drwho@virtadpt.net Copyright 2008 Pivot Pivot - 1.40.6: 'Dreadwind' Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:58:59 -0400 60 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/09/06/an_old_friend_deployed_by_the_ http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/09/06/an_old_friend_deployed_by_the_#comm
An old friend of mine, Dee Mikula, is shipping out soon. She isn't in the military, but works as an EMT in Seattle and is registered with the Red Cross as a first responder in disaster situations. In 2004, she worked in central Florida during hurricane season, and on Tuesday, the ninth of September she's flying down to the Gulf to assist during the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav. Unfortunately, this means that she's taking three weeks of unpaid leave from her job which more or less leaves her without a source of income while in the field.

Ordinarily, I don't ask for stuff like this, but she's in a jam. She's asking for donations so that she can keep her rent and utilities paid while on duty, and to that end there's a Paypal account linked off of her homepage for donations.

I've known Dee for over a decade now, ever since I lived in Pittsburgh, so I'll vouch for her. She's trying to do some good in the world and she could use some help in doing so. If you can spare some money right now, please send it to her.

Dependent upon her connection to the global Net, she might be incommunicado while in the field. I'll post updates as I can (and as she gives permission, of course). ]]> 794@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ default Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:58:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/09/04/firefox_plugins_i_have_known_a http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/09/04/firefox_plugins_i_have_known_a#comm
Firefox, in my considered opinion, is an excellent web browser - its memory footprint is small, it's lightweight, it's easy to install, it's available on a number of platforms, and it's also extremely extensible, in the form of Add-ons that add or modify features of the web browser. Also, the Mozilla Project itself has been fairly diligent in fixing reported vulnerabilities in their work; Microsoft hasn't, unfortunately, though they are getting better at it. Microsoft also tends to have a too-little-too-late approach to their browser upgrades. While IE7 now includes tabs and IE8 will have some privacy features, Firefox and Opera had them several years ago, and more's the point they've had time to get them working properly. As you might expect of an open and extensible platform, coders from all over have implemented security and privacy related add-ons, of which I've spent a couple of years testing, destroying, and hammering on out of enlightened self-interest. These are the ones that I recommend to everyone because they're the first things I install in a new copy of Firefox.
More under the cut... ]]> 793@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ content Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:36:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/31/hurricane_gustav_incoming http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/31/hurricane_gustav_incoming#comm hurricane Gustav is headed toward the coast, and Louisiana is once again squarely in the line of fire. I've heard that Gustav is currently a category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, and it's expected to hit category 4 at some point.

You know, there isn't a whole lot that I can say on this topic because someone far more erudite than I said them far better than I ever could. However, I'm collecting links to resources that I hope will be of help to everyone.

First and foremost, Radio Reference has set up a resource wiki for people who still have connectivity. There are links to Shoutcast streams coming from communication nets in the general area, conferencing servers, and other things that'll be of assistance.

Something I'm considering doing is building a few of these portable telecommunications relays to connect some VOIP phones to the Net by way of a series of wireless repeaters, where people can then get in contact with people outside of the zone.

It's been posted to the Scan-DC mailing list that the Hurricane Center is broadcasting on 14.325 MHz (thanks, W3CQH). 7.268 MHz and 3.950 MHz are also part of the Hurricane Watch Net, which is coordinated by station WX4NHC (thanks, James Richardson). Scanner frequencies for the National Guard are being posted to the blog Milcom Monitoring Post (thanks, Punworg).

Jessica Melusine has posted her own list of Gustav resources, such as charities that are already involved in organizing relief efforts, Habitat for Humanity, and the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital.

I'm going to be updating this post as I find more stuff. If anyone reading this comes across helpful links, please post them in the comments and I'll add them.

I don't know what else I can do but try to put people in touch with the right people right now. I'm not down there, and I don't think I can get down there anytime soon, but I can help keep the lines of communication open.
More under the cut... ]]> 792@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ default Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:32:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/31/engineering_and_reengineering_ http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/31/engineering_and_reengineering_#comm Firebug and YSlow plugins to see where the bottlenecks were, and as a result I removed a half-dozen or so badges from weblog directories that did little else but add to the page loading time. I also restructured the links along the sidebar so that it was better organized and put the useful bits near the top and the archives at the bottom, which flows better visually I think. The Delicious links are rather incongruous; I'll figure out what to do with them later.

The tag cloud? Had to go. It kept trapping search engines.

Yesterday afternoon the folks down at HacDC had a free afternoon class on Python, an object-oriented scripting language on just about every platform you could care to mention. Just as was said in XKCD, it really is that easy. Because you don't have to worry nearly as much about variable typing (even less so than in Perl) and it does a lot of heavy lifting (like error detection and handling). I also very much like the fact that it's mature enough that people are writing whole applications in it. For example, many Gnome apps.

Note to self: Clear my next project with $boss before starting on it.
More under the cut... ]]> 791@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ default Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:36:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/31/privacy_policy http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/31/privacy_policy#comm
The Apache web server maintains logs of all accesses - every PHP page, every HTML page, every image file, every JavaScript snippet gets logged with your IP address, like so:

192.168.1.254 - - [30/Aug/2008:21:45:44 -0400] "GET /pivot/index.php HTTP/1.1" 200 14346 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008081820 Gentoo Firefox/3.0.1"

Logs are kept for nine (9) weeks only - the current week is the active one, the previous eight (8) weeks are kept on disk in compressed format for the purposes of security auditing, debugging, and usage tracking. I analyze usage tracking because I'm curious about how people use my site and what they look at most often. Every Sunday night, the oldest archived log file is erased to conserve disk space. Various kinds of analytic software are used to digest the logs for usage tracking; analyses are archived for one (1) calendar year and the oldest are automatically erased to conserve disk space.

One of these days, I'll put my page of weird search results (without any identifying information) back up for the amusement and edification of everyone.

When you leave comments on posts, your e-mail address is not publically exposed. It's used internally so that you can be notified if anyone responds to your comment. By no means do you have to give real info when you do this.

Every once in a while I'll link to things sold on Amazon which are associated with my Amazon Associates account. If you happen to buy whatever is linked to, I'll get a few cents of credit which goes toward books or music. If you just click on the link, I don't get anything. I don't know who clicks on them, so I can't use them for data mining or usage tracking. You're not under any obligation to buy anything (but if you do buy me something from my wishlist I'll be grateful and think you're awesome).

I also make use of Google Analytics on my site, which means that every PHP and HTML file has a link to a chunk of Javascript hosted on one of Google's servers. That Javascript is used to gather usage information which I examine periodically to see what people are looking at on and how they're making use of my site. If you disagree with this, I recommend that you a) run Firefox and b) make use of the Customize Google add-on, which has a setting that dodges Google Analytics. I happen to use it, and recommend it highly for this reason.

That's it, really. If this changes anytime in the future, I'll update this post and tell everyone that it's been edited. ]]> 790@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ content Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:31:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/29/now_i_get_the_hype_about_the_n http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/29/now_i_get_the_hype_about_the_n#comm NIA brain-computer interface from OCZ Technology (which is also known for its build-your-own-laptop kits). Ostensibly, it's a consumer-grade, non-invasive EEG that you strap across your forehead and jack into a small interface unit which then plugs into a USB port on your computer. The unit comes with drivers that can map certain inputs from the dermatrodes (good call, Mr. Gibson) to keyboard and mouse events defined by the user.. the upshot of this means that you can, once you get good at it, use learned thought patterns to carry out tasks, such as moving around inside a spreadsheet or playing video games.

I must confess, I was highly skeptical of devices like this when I first heard about them. In undergrad I knew that there were a few people playing around with homebrew versions of this technology but they never really released any specific information so, without proof, I had to write them off as rumours. I also recall the Nintendo Powerglove, which wasn't a very good way to play games but was nifty to hack around with. Revolutionary devices for user-computer interface usually aren't, unfortunately.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked.
More under the cut... ]]> 789@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ technomagick Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:02:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/27/work_progresses_on_the_sonic_s http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/27/work_progresses_on_the_sonic_s#comm HacDC lately is the fact that they've got a pretty well stocked electronics lab in the loft. There are shelves on the walls holding parts for sale and parts that have been salvaged from discarded equipment, boxes and boxes of spare everything you can imagine, and a couple of racks of power tools and other sundry equipment... in short, all stuff I don't have at my apartment.

More the point, the HacDC loft is a place where I can safely work on projects and not mess up the environment. Like the good couch. Or the kitchen table.

So, here's what I got done...
More under the cut... ]]> 788@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ default Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:01:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/25/getting_down_to_the_wire http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/25/getting_down_to_the_wire#comm
Lyssa and I relaxed a bit on Friday night by watching the third Ghost in the Shell movie, called Solid State Society. While technically canon, it actually bridges the first and second seasons of the television series rather than the movies. Visually speaking it's as well done as the series, with the same voice actors playing the same characters. If you've watched either the first season or are familiar with the other movies or manga you'll have enough background to understand and appreciate what's going on. Solid State Society takes place two years after the Major resigned from Section Nine and covers the investigation of a series of odd suicides throughout Japan of the future.
More under the cut... ]]> 787@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ default Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:04:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/23/busy_times http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/23/busy_times#comm HacDC loft to work on stuff, hanging out with Zapheus from Brass Goggles, shopping, keeping the apartment picked up.. I haven't had time to write about things like that. Most of the posts I've been putting up lately I actually wrote offline over a period of days in a catch-as-catch-can manner and then cut and pasted them into entries.

I haven't forgotten anyone, and I'll get posts up as soon as I can.

Wedding invitations were mailed out this morning.

By the way.. when did Radio Shack start carrying infra-red LEDs, infra-red sensors, and high-intensity ultraviolet LEDs?

For those of you trying to comment lately but not seeing comments appear, I noticed in Leandra's server logs that some of you don't seem to have Javascript in your web browsers turned on, which causes hashcash to fail, and some of you have been using words that the (seemingly overzealous) spamword blocker has been picking up on. I've removed the words in question from the blocklist, which should fix things. Sorry about that.

Next up: installing mod_gnutls on Leandra so that I can use SSL v3/TLS v1 on the web server to encrypt traffic for all of the websites hosted, not just the frontpage which doesn't have much on it.

Oh, by the way... Saloncon is the weekend of 13 September 2008. Abney Park will be headlining Saturday evening. I'll be the DJ at the dance immediately following, so bring your dancing shoes. ]]> 786@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ default Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:29:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/21/passwords_passphrases_and_prac http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/21/passwords_passphrases_and_prac#comm
More under the cut... ]]> 785@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ content Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:18:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/19/privacy_anonymity_and_security http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/19/privacy_anonymity_and_security#comm
Like a bunch of blog posts.

The first question that you have to ask yourself is probably the hardest of all... how paranoid do you really need to be? What do you do that would make adding a couple of security measures a worthwhile activity?
More under the cut... ]]> 784@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ content Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:52:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/18/preparing_for_the_end_of_time_ http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/18/preparing_for_the_end_of_time_#comm people dropping out of workaday life and preparing for the end of the world. From the United States to France to the Russian Confederation, stockpiles of crop seeds are being built, water purefiers are vanishing from the shelves, and basic knowledge about farming, medicine, and engineering is being crammed into many a brain. Normally, this isn't a very interesting phenomenon because people have been doing this for literally centuries - the end of the world as we know it is a hot topic of discussion in the western world thanks to the sex-and-death trip. Sometimes it seems as if you can't throw a crashed hard drive without hitting someone who declares that the apocalypse is coming and we should all be ready for it. Their theories now incorporate magnetic pole reversal, solar flares, world-rending earthquakes, and potentially alien invasion or the second coming (sometimes both).

In truth, I closed my browser window seconds before one particular tidbit of information jumped out at me, and I re-opened it to take a closer look: Rather than Christmas Day, New Year's Day, the Year 2000, 5 May 2000, or any of the other dates that come and go, the date they're shooting for is 21 December 2012. Afficionados of the strange and unusual will recognize this date immediately, but for those of you who aren't up on your western psychedelic mysticism this is the date that the Mayan calendar comes to an end.

Sit back with your drink of choice, and let the Doctor tell you a tale, a yarn spun by another who actually Did the Work and came back to recount his adventures. Unlike the man whose story I'm about to summarize, I'm a bit of a curmudgeon about stuff like this.
More under the cut... ]]> 783@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ default Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:49:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/16/photographs_from_jills_wedding http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/16/photographs_from_jills_wedding#comm pictures from Jill and Mike's wedding online. ]]> 782@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ images Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:51:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/15/just_a_bit_late_jills_wedding http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/15/just_a_bit_late_jills_wedding#comm
Perhaps I should explain.

About a week before Jill's wedding I rediscovered the Dell gift card in the china cabinet which I'd gotten for being such a good customer (eleven years of laptops and counting) earlier this year. Due to the fact that I was on field assignment much of the time I dropped it into the empty sugar bowl in the cabinet and promptly forgot about it, but while cleaning up I noticed the gift card and attached rectangle of white plastic. I wracked my brain for a while to figure out what I should order (even considering ordering a solid-state video camera that looked a bit too much like a gun for my general safety), but it was Lyssa who suggested that I buy myself a digital camera to replace the one on extended loan from my mother, which I really should get back to her. What arrived on my doorstep that morning was a Canon Powershot SD1100 IS, a digital camera about the size of a pack of cards with an image resolution of eight megapixels, a zoom function that's half optical and half digital image extrapolation, and best of all image stabilization algorithms built into the CPU that correct for the jitters (like my hands when I've had too much coffee to drink). In short, it takes wonderful pictures, and it came with a two gigabyte SD card, so as of right now I have more image space than I know what to do with.

So now I had a camera with which to take some (decent) photographs at the wedding.
More under the cut... ]]> 781@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ default Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:41:00 -0400 http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/12/restaurant_review_jaipur http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2008/08/12/restaurant_review_jaipur#comm Jaipur Royal Indian Cuisine (9401 Lee Highway; Unit 105 (at the Circle Towers); Fairfax, VA; 22031; phone 703-766-1111; fax 703-766-1113) for a long-over Indian dinner on the town. Jaipur came highly recommended by not a few people; some said that it's the closest thing to home cooking that they've had while in the States.
More under the cut... ]]> 780@http://drwho.virtadpt.net/pivot/ restaurants Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:53:00 -0400