I'm drawing a blank here...

Changing Xen's choice of console

2010-09-11T22:53:00.003-05:00

Just want to note another writeup on how to change the Xen console. It picks the serial line by default; if you need that serial line, this makes it unavailble. The Xen manual is available, but an example is worth a lot more!

Back to electronics

2009-05-30T13:59:00.003-05:00

I needed a change of hobby again, and pulled out all my electronics stuff. My first go-around is to bread-board a basic W65C02 + SRAM + EEPROM + LCD together. Once I cleared up my confusion about BE ("bus enable" has nothing to do with the CPU wanting the bus!) and got the contrast setup correctly for the LCD, it all worked fine and dandy up to 4MHz.

So, I (not so intelligently) thought that interfacing a joystick would be pretty simple. Not quite -- for one, it has analog to read, and I haven't done that yet. And two, I'd like to make a "device" to manage the joystick but all I have are PIC microcontrollers... so I have timing and software to deal with. We'll see where it goes from there.

Oh well, it's interesting and most definitely a challenge!

Somewhere over the rainbow!!

2008-04-08T20:11:00.001-05:00

Upgrading again

2008-03-22T08:36:00.002-05:00

It's been a few years, and with MythTV having been shut down for a number of months, I figure this is the best time to upgrade my Linux server. I've got an old version of Fedora Core that I'll upgrade... and, typically, that is much easier if I back up data. Myth can be a bit touchy and I haven't done anything with it for quite a while. Wish me luck!

Essay...

2007-04-22T18:01:00.000-05:00

There is always someone who says something well. Here's one of those.

Mom (continued)

2007-04-18T17:30:00.000-05:00

My mother passed away on April 18th, at 5:30pm. My brother and I were walking her dog when we were called back to the house.

She had suffered so much and had been grieving off and on for two months that I was just able to sit next to mom, hold her hand, and say my good-bye's.

All I can say is that she will be missed.

Mom

2007-03-19T22:30:00.000-05:00

In early February, my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

We knew that something was up since the summer (2006) when her stomach started bothering her and she stopped eating as much as she needed. At one point, my wife pointed out how much weight my mom had lost, and then one day I noticed.

The good news (if there is any) is that she has 6-12 months. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy in the hopes her symptoms can be held in check for a while. Chemo is brutal on my mom and she frequently has a few rotten days after the treatments. Since I am two blocks away, I am trying to spend as much time as possible with her. Both to help out, and to remember. My mom's pretty independent and definitely doesn't want to be babied.

We have discovered that her neighbors are really good neighbors. That's always a plus. My mother-in-law has been very helpful too, assisting with appointments (since my mom is not allowed to drive any more).

At any rate, my usual sporadic posting activity will be even more sporadic...

Hah, correction

2007-03-19T22:28:00.000-05:00

As I ponder a more serious post, I noticed that the GNO/ME post mentions that GNO supports up to 32 "processors". That should, of course, be processes.

More on GNO/ME

2007-01-22T18:45:00.000-06:00

This is really fascinating! GNO allows up to 32 concurrent processors. On an Apple IIGS. Like, wow this is impressive and must have been really really wild when it first came out.

I figured out where a lot of my problems came from - somehow I had corrupted two of the GNO distribution archives. Once I realized that, I got fresh copies and all seems well... almost all.

It appears that the larger commands fail quietly (sometimes locking up the machine). I'm guessing that this is related to the amount of RAM in the machine. With 1.25MB, I'm left with about 200KB available (GNO sits on top of GS/OS, so that's really not that bad).

Anyway, I'm working on something useful to do with it ... :-)

The Truth

2007-01-22T18:44:00.000-06:00

truth

Unix ... for my Apple IIGS

2007-01-13T12:23:00.000-06:00

This is pretty cool. I finally spent an hour installing GNO (full name is GNO/ME) on the Apple IIGS. Basically, you end up with a multiprocessor machine in a 16 bit world. I got it working with a new 512MB CF card I had purchased - I have 4 32MB ProDOS formatted harddrives and a 384MB HFS formatted volume too.

There are a few flukes, and I need to figure out what I can do with it, but it has a Unix-like shell. I'm pretty sure I can get some form of terminal going (probably not TCP/IP). Security is not the greatest (ProDOS and HFS filesystems are strictly single user - you have access to everything on the system).

Now I wonder how I can use it. Development? Have no clue, but it is pretty impressive: 1.25MB, 8MHz, 16-bit.

Yum continues to get hosed periodically...

2007-01-13T12:06:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure why. Anyone who has an idea - I'd love to know. In the meantime, I continue to following my yum unhosed directions.

Makin' Wands

2006-12-30T16:41:00.000-06:00

My son has really gotten into Harry Potter lately and has been begging for a wand. He was so motivated that he tried to make one out of paper. Which I tossed, of course. And then decided we needed to make a "real" wand.

Fortunately, it's real easy! Get two dowels. One is 3/4" in diameter and the other is 3/8". Cut to appropriate lengths -- 2" or so for length, 14-16" for wand body. Drill a hole in the 3/4" dowel. Use wood glue to glue together. Sand. Stain. Varnish. Done!

Result: Happy kids. :-)

If you have a lathe or turner (or can jig one together), I imagine you can shape the wand handle a bit to make it look nice.

Subversion 1.4.2

2006-12-16T21:35:00.000-06:00

For some reason, Subversion 1.4.2 does not appear to be available for Fedora Core 5. I'm guessing that it's because Fedora Core 6 is out, but really don't know. The base install has 1.3.2.

I have an interest in 1.4.2 because of some of the updates and because it will be what we use at work. Since I am the builder (literally) of that environment, it is good for me to have pre-existing experience.

At any rate, when I built 1.4.2, I thought all was well until I realized that Python couldn't find Subversion. Finally realized that the Python bindings need to be built separately. Then, I found out that the client couldn't hit external repositories with WebDAV. So I monkeyed around, got it to work from command line by using the "-dep" package. However, then Apache would segfault.

Finally found out tonight that I need to use the Apache 2.2 APR and APR Utils but keep the dependent Neon package (that is, ignore the one already installed in the system).

Whew! It's been a good week since things broke.

New camera!

2006-12-10T22:49:00.000-06:00

Christmas came a bit early this year! When my mom asked me what I wanted for a gift I suggested a new camera. Today was the day we went and did a little shopping...

I've had a trusty Olympus C-3000 Zoom since we moved into this house, basically - that's about 5 or more years old. It is still a good camera - but I wanted more zoom (like 10x instead of 3x), better movie mode (> 30 seconds), and more responsive. It has basically become dated and that's not surprising since this is tech we're talking about.

After doing a bit of review and reading on Digital Photography Review, I settled on a few cameras that appeared to be in the class I was looking at. After playing around with the Canon PowerShot S3 IS, along with the equivalent Sony and others, I settled on the Canon.

So far so good. We shot my mom's Christmas picture, printed it out on my photo printer and she's ready to go. (Old fashioned - she still cuts and pastes the photo... and then brings it to a copier business to duplicate!!)

The camera is snappy, movies (as far as I've been able to test them) are quite good, images appear good, and there's lots of features to explore. I think the only downside is that when shooting a movie and taking still pictures (yes, you can do that), the movie blanks out and you get the click sound. Other than than, it's been a pleasure playing with it.

Backing up Windows XP ...

2006-12-09T16:42:00.000-06:00

My wife's computer went a bit flaky on Friday night, and we suddenly realized she never got it backed up (a-hem!). After a bit of thinking, I decided the most reliable thing to do would be to schedule a script that archives her data and ships it to the Linux server.

Not wanting to hard-code passwords, I needed to do a little research in key exchanges for ssh/scp. What I came up with is this...

Initial setup:
1. Install Cygwin. Make sure to select the additional ssh, bzip2, and vim.
2. Generate ssh keys:

ssh-keygen -t rsa1
ssh-keygen -t rsa
ssh-keygen -t dsa

(I will admit that I'm not sure which of these keys are actually required, so I simply generate all three.) Note that if you provide no passphrase, it will not be required in the script -- hint, hint.

3. Copy ssh keys to the Linux server:

cat *.pub | ssh user@server "cat > ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

Now you need to script the backup of files. Here's a copy of my backup script:

#!/bin/bash

PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin

echo "Starting backup @ $(date)"

cd /cygdrive/c/Documents\ and\ Settings/Rob/My\ Documents

tar cjf - --exclude Emulators --exclude "Virtual CD*" * 2>/tmp/backup-errors.log |
 ssh user@server "cat >rob/backup-new.tbz"

ssh user@server "cd ~/rob/ 
  rm -f backup-old-2.tbz 
  mv -f backup-old-1.tbz backup-old-2.tbz 
  mv -f backup-current.tbz backup-old-1.tbz 
  mv backup-new.tbz backup-current.tbz
  ls -lh"

echo "Completed backup @ $(date)"

echo -n "Press [ENTER]: "
read X

You'll note that I see the PATH - that's because launching from the XP scheduler gives a different environment than from the typical Cygwin environment. Also, the tar pipes the backup file directly into SSH and it gets written to a file on the Linux server. Finally, I move the files around to keep 3 weeks of backup.

Schedule the script: This is in the Windows XP control panel, Scheduled Tasks. Create a new task, start it in c:\cygwin\bin (where-ever Cygwin is installed). Then, I found it easiest to browse to the shell script and select it and then prepend bash to that value. My Run entry looks like this:

bash "C:\Documents and Settings\Rob\My Documents\bin\backup-rob.sh"

That's it! Test it a few times. Make sure you can untar it. Wait to make sure the scheduler kicks it off.

Installing Linux on antique hardware - Part 3

2006-12-04T21:33:00.000-06:00

Finally found a distribution in which I was able to hack together a graphical version for the ThinkPad 760XL. This is a Pentium MMX 166 MHz machine with 48MB RAM, a Trident TGUI 9660 with 1MB of video RAM (that's 800x600 at 16bits best), and a 12.1 TFT panel. I got everything except sound working, but I've never actually worried about sound - Linux has been a server workhorse and Windows has been for games.

Anyway, I tried Fedora Core 6, Fedora Core 3, Ubuntu 6.10, Open SUSE 10.1, Damn Small Linux 3.0, and finally, Debian 3.1. It feels like I tried more, but each install took - potentially - 2-3 hours - I suppose that a week or so isn't too bad. (You know, I sort of have a job, a child, my wife, and other stuff to do!!)

The good the bad and the ugly of the failures:

FC6 needs 128MB RAM minimum to install. It told me. And that was very nice.
FC3 ran through the whole stinkin' install (that's a bit over 2 hours) and then booted into an X configuration that didn't work. I couldn't find a text console to log on to and I don't think I was able to telnet or SSH into the machine, so that was basically an installation that became a brick with an embedded fan.
The Ubuntu installer just plugged along... until it apparently wasn't doing anything anymore. I gave up after a good 30 minutes since the last activity (ie, no HDD lights or anything).
Open SUSE had an installer that looked great. But, it couldn't find the CD-ROM after booting from said CD-ROM!
DSL booted and installed just fine. This would probably be the best bet for a non-X (or limited X) configuration. But, we wanted a GUI to work from. I just couldn't figure out how to tweak XFree86. And then I realized it used some tiny XFree86 server and didn't have the config file. Poking around, it looks like I could install the full XFree86 - if I wanted to invest more time.
Debian (which I haven't used before) actually allowed a floppy-based network install. It booted, recognized the network card (as did the other Linux variants), and started chugging with the base install. After rebooting from the HDD, I realized I didn't have X. A couple of install sessions later, X was limping along (hint: Just install KDE or Gnome and I bet you have a better time than I had!!). It didn't really configure the optimum settings, and that took quite a bit of tinkering. I had multiple active XF86Config (??) files floating around. Once I figured that out and made it one, progress was made. I finally just commented out all the resolutions I didn't want and was able to get to 800x600 with 8 bits of color. (Not sure where that 16 bits of color went...)

I've installed a few games, verified network connectivity, left a few browsers available, and have the external mouse working, so I'm going to pass it back and call it good enough!

Anyone else gotten a modern install on the ThinkPad 760XL? I'd like to know how to get the full 800x600 with 16 bits of color (64K colors). I'm sure there is some mojo I don't know about - I'm most definitely just a hack when it comes to X configurations. Modern hardware is a lot easier! I think that XFree86 4.3 is distributed with Debian 3.1.

Yum unhosed!

2006-12-01T22:18:00.000-06:00

Well, I finally figured it out. Let me restate that. I resolved the problem. Whether I actually figured it out is probably open to debate. :-)

Here's my final post at the FedoraForum - and just in case it gets lost at some point:

rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db*
rpm -vv --rebuilddb
yum clean all
yum update

By line:
1. Delete existing RPM databases.
2. Rebuild RPM databases (-vv = more logging than you can ever use)
3. Clean the YUM databases (not sure if this was actually required)
4. yum update now functions.

Yaay!

Note to self ...

2006-11-30T19:35:00.000-06:00

And this may be interesting to other Science Fiction geeks out there. Pharyngula had a discussion regarding good Sci Fi and I want to hang on to it for a reference - lots of stuff I agreed with, so I suspect the books I have never read are worth checking out.

Science Fiction recommendations
Juvenile Science Fiction recommendations

And somebody also mentioned the SF Reviews site.

Installing Linux on antique hardware - Part 2

2006-11-30T19:32:00.000-06:00

Fedora Core 3 did complete its install. BUT (and this is a big one) it doesn't appear to make it to the graphical login screen. The install took a good 2 hours, so by the time I finally got to boot, it was past midnight last night.

I'll give it another stab tomorrow. I may be able to telnet or SSH into the machine and correct stuff. Or I may not and may be off to do another try. But, tonight I have to work.

Installing Linux on antique hardware

2006-11-28T22:22:00.000-06:00

This time I'm working on an install for an IBM Thinkpad 760XL for a friend at work who wants to impress his son.

Not sure on the CPU for this baby, but I think we've got a 2GB drive and 64MB RAM. This machine cannot boot from the CD drive... and the floppy and CD share a drive bay, so there is some juggling to do.

So far, I have successfully booted the CD. This took a bit, but I finally realized that Smart Boot Manager is capable of installing onto the boot sector of that hard drive. It also needs a bootable CD-ROM in the drive to show up in the menu. I had trouble with flopping the physical drives once it ran - not sure if that is a user error or a defect.

You'd think that that was the end of the story, but I Fedora Core 6 refused to allow me to install since I didn't have enough RAM to even get going.

I'm trying Ubuntu 6.06 right now, and we'll see how that goes.

If Ubuntu fails, I'm not messing around anymore and heading straight for Damn Small Linux.

UPDATE (11pm): Ubuntu kinda went off into la-la land and I ultimately tossed it. DSL does boot, but the graphical mode never comes up. If I need to go text-only, DSL is at least an option, but it was requested to go graphical. From a little further research and tinkering, I can get the FC1 installer to begin installing. I googled around a bit, and it appears that FC5 may also install with 64MB of RAM, so I will start working backwords. Bad news is that I need to download the FC5 CD's now.

Yum hosed?

2006-11-26T10:29:00.000-06:00

Somehow 'yum' got into a perpetual state of not functioning within the last week. Not sure what preceded this, except I had trouble updating FC5 for about a week before it finally worked. I posted my question to FedoraForum and have a few suggestions, but I'm not above trolling for more assistance. :-)

Anyway, I've removed the MythTV repositories from the most-excellent Fedora Myth(TV)ology HOWTO but that doesn't seem to matter much at this point.

My working theory is that something in the extra repositories 'upgraded' the base Fedora installation and the conflict is giving yum fits. Unfortunately, the 'fit' is expressed as doing ... nothing. :-/

Backing up blogger (beta)

2006-11-19T22:14:00.000-06:00

I upgraded this blog a few weeks ago, and forgot that my old automated script wasn't working very well. It is scheduled to run weekly, and it runs nearly forever after the upgrade. It also chews up over 4 gigabytes of space... no idea where it would stop since I typically find my Linux server is running slowly.

Anyway, I finally fixed up the backup script, and since I didn't find one quite like it, here it is:

cd `dirname $0`
TMP=/tmp/blogbackup
mkdir $TMP
cd $TMP

wget --progress=dot robgreene.blogspot.com
gawk '/([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]_[0-9][0-9]_[0-9][0-9]_archive.html)/ { \
      match($0, \
      "http://robgreene.blogspot.com/[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]_[0-9][0-9]_[0-9][0-9]_archive.html"); \
      print substr($0,RSTART,RLENGTH); }' <index.html >toget
wget --progress=dot --page-requisites --span-hosts --convert-links \
      -erobots=off --input-file=toget

cd -
tar czvf robgreene-blog-$(date +'%Y%m%d').tgz $TMP
rm -rf $TMP

Be careful of the word wrap.

Basically, I grab my index and then search for the monthly index links of the format ####_##_##_archive.html (# = digit). Once those are found, we download the monthly archives along with all of their images/css/javascript and other stuff.

Another visitor!

2006-11-19T20:43:00.000-06:00

No, not the cousins. ;-)

Last night, the furnace was clunking a lot. We heard banging from - somewhere - in the basement. I finally headed down there with a flashlight and realized that something was caught in the furnace just in front of the air cleaner.

I came back down with a big garbage can, a stick, and big gloves. After turning off the furnace and the air filter, I opened it up and ... a flying squirrel?! Wow! It was pretty cagey, prowling around, but it wouldn't come by me.

I went upstairs to get my wife to standby (you know, just in case the thing jumped me) and went back down... the squirrel was now checking out the garbage can. One quick swoop and he was in the garbage can and I was hollering "open the garage door!!" Once I had a straight shot, I ran up and out. The poor fella was actually pretty cute. Don't want him inside though.

The good news? The furnace was nice an quiet the rest of the night.

The bad news? I bet we have a number of flying squirrels poking around. Boo!

Back to the compiler...

2006-11-14T20:02:00.000-06:00

Building a compiler seems to be endlessly entertaining. There is always something to keep me busy - particularly so because I haven't really got a clue.

Here's one you may enjoy.

Working with a signed short, defined to be 2 bytes long, the range is -32768 (0x8000) to 32767 (0x7fff). What happens when you add one to the maximum value? How about subtract one from the minimum value? Multiply by 2? Divide by 2?

Simple, right? Well...

32767 + 1 = -32768
-32768 - 1 = 32767
-32768 * 2 = 0
-32768 * 3 = -32768
-32768 / 2 = -16384

Most of those should at least make you frown. It all makes sense and comes down to the fact that nobody wants to actually do a bounds check for every single computation done by a compiled program.

Starting with 32767 + 1. 32767 is, in hex 0x7fff, or 0b0111 1111 1111 1111 (binary). Add one to that, and you get 0b1000 0000 0000 0000. The high bit in a signed operation means negative. We just flipped from positive territory into negative territory. 0x8000 is the same value as -32768. Run that in reverse for -32768 - 1 becoming 32767.

-32768 * 2 is, essentially a bit-shift to the left. So, -32768 = 0x8000 = 0b1000 0000 0000 0000. Shifting the bit pattern to the left one bit yields 0b0000 0000 0000 0000, and this is easy, that is 0x0 or 0. Times three is the same as -32768*2 + -32768*1, so, by substitution, that becomes 0 + -32768*1, or -32768 (again the "times 2" part is shifted out of our value).

-32768 / 2, comes out right simply because dividing comes down to shifting to the right. So, 0b1000 0000 0000 0000 shifted to the right becomes 0b1100 0000 0000 0000 (the high bit is replaced), and we get the right answer of -16384.

Cool, huh? Real numbers have similar "gotcha's" that also make sense with a little thinking.

I am so ashamed

2006-11-09T08:38:00.000-06:00

I am so ashamed at the state of Wisconsin. We have allowed the hatred and bigotry of the majority to, essentially, dehumanize our fellow citizens.

Do you think homosexuals are incapable of forming a lifelong bond? Of course not. Do they have the same concerns about protecting each other throughout their lives? Of course they do. Do we judge any marriages within the law? Of course not. Should we infringe on the freedom of anybody because we don't like "them"? Absolutely not.

So, somebody, please explain rationally why they are not afforded the same protections the rest of us are, because I just don't see it. All I hear is FUD.

Shame on you.

What really bothers me...

2006-11-01T19:13:00.000-06:00

Is that we have the opportunity to vote about what some one else is allowed to do. This is an activity that has no connection to the voters. Nobody gets hurt. The people in involved are both consenting adults. And, yet, because the group of people is a minority, we can disallow them from doing something.

I think that's why this gay rights deal really hits home.

I'm a left handed person - maybe all the "righties" should get together and disallow me from doing something innocuous? Same difference.

I got a letter...

2006-11-01T18:09:00.000-06:00

One of my coworkers today was wandering around asking people if they had gotten a certain letter. It was a letter about gay marriage from a friend of mine - who happens to be gay. This coworker was confused why he seemed to be singled out. Well, he wasn't. I got one too!

The letter was well written. I cannot even conceive of how difficult a decision it was to write the it in the first place. With todays religiously motivated society, that takes guts.

The whole concept of "banning" gay marriage is ludicrous. This is just another wedge issue for Republicans. I really and honestly believe that, since their entire platform seems to be primarily one of fear and hate.

Anyway, anyone who knows me knows how I'll vote. And, as my coworkers will attest, I'm willing to argue with anyone about this.

Freedom is always a struggle.

Sharing books

2006-10-19T21:39:00.000-05:00

I've always enjoyed reading. It's doubly enjoyable when I can share a book with someone else. And it's trebly enjoyable if that person enjoys the story so much they want to pass it on.

Yesterday, one of my coworkers brought back Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. She had stopped by to drop off the book and request the next in the series (yes!). In the process of dropping the book off, her descriptions where enthusiastic enough that her manager requested the loan of the book (yes again!!).

<Big Happy Grin>

Anyway, if you haven't read the series, do yourself a favor and pickup the first in the series. I promise, you won't be disappointed. (Unfortunately, I don't leand my books to strangers - I want them to find their way home.)

P.S. I've only read Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, and Voyager. I see there are three more to get!

Subversion + Subclipse + Eclipse weirdness

2006-10-11T20:43:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if this is a lack of understanding on my part, or if this is some funky issue with the Subclipse plug-in, or something intrinsic with Subversion. I'm not totally sure of the basic actions to take to replicate it, but...

If I update my Subversion repository outside of Eclipse, when I do a "Synchronize with Repository," I get a whole series of directories that need to be updated. "Fine," I usually figure, "I'll just update and be done with it." It makes sense because I've committed a transaction or two elsewhere, so it'll just bring my workspace up-to-date with the latest revision, right?

Nope!

It doesn't go away. Not with the update, not with the replace with latest from repository. The only "fix" I've found is to delete the project and re-add it.

Not a total show stopper, but it is extremely annoying.

What am I missing? I'm running the 1.1.7 version of Subclipse, which is a development branch. So, that could be it, but I'd think more people than myself would whine about it...

Writin' a compiler...

2006-10-11T20:20:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a compiler for a few weeks now - 2 hours or so in the evening, sometimes a whole 4 hours when I stretch myself to midnight. Still have to get up around 6 or 6:30, so that's pushing it...

Anyway, the language is a basic-ish language to use in my embedded and small (read: ancient) computer projects. What I've implemented to date actually works and is using an assembler I had written before with a few touch-ups. I have the basic control statements (for-next, while-do, repeat-until, goto, gosub, return, addition/subtraction, comparison operators, logical operators, along with embedded assembly and minor peephole optimizations).

I haven't added the distinction of various datatypes. I originally planned for byte, short, integer, long, possibly real, and strings. Working standard sizes, that long becomes an 8 byte datatype which is a bit large for an embedded language -- think of 8 bit microcontrollers that may only operate on one byte at a time. Is there a 'standard' data typing for 1, 2, 3, and 4 byte numbers? I'm thinking byte (1), short (2), short integer (3), integer (4). But, I'm afraid that "short integer" is too confusing - since "short" is really a "short integer". Thoughts?

I can just skip it too - but in a constrained memory footprint I may want a 3 byte number with a range to 16 million.

Something's thumping on the wall...

2006-09-29T23:13:00.000-05:00

We had a visitor tonight! I guess that on cold, wet, rainy nights, the raccoons cannot get enough to eat. So they go scrounge around in the neighbors' birdfeeders. Well, something like that.

Funny thing is that this is a squirrel-proof feeder. Now we need a squirrel-proof and raccoon-proof one! This one is going to be packed away. Or, at least moved somewhere a raccoon can't get. (Is there such a place??)

Oh well, at least they don't eat my wife's plants.

Most excellent!

2006-09-26T20:00:00.000-05:00

I try to stay away from politics just because we're falling to the Right and I'm most definately not Right-leaning. So, to see an actual reporter actually lambasting our current president and his policies totally stunned me. That's a good thing. Just in case you missed it, here's a link to YouTube with the video:

GooglePages + JNLP = ?

2006-09-20T21:44:00.000-05:00

Apparantly, that equation comes out to be something like "fizzle" for the answer, unfortunately. Looks like the JNLP MIME types aren't enabled from the google site. Anyone dealt with this yet?

Nerd Score

2006-09-06T20:33:00.000-05:00

Migrations...

2006-09-04T10:52:00.000-05:00

I've spent the last few weeks migrating from two servers to one. (Ok, it's really a consolidation.) Everything now sits on the Compaq W6000 workstation and it seems to be stable.

I've also begun some serious repository conversion from CVS to Subversion. Pretty slick, but I've had to write a few scripts to deal with oddities. I've opted not to create a separate subversion repository for each of my projects (way too much overhead there) and instead am just using a single repository. I figure if something grows too big (or needs to be shared) that I will simply dump the data out and then import it into the new repository.

The structure I've chosen has, at a high level, a partitioning scheme based on the type of thing being stored. For instance, I have java-devel, unix-devel, and server-config at this time. Under each of these is the typical trunk/tags/branches directories. Under that exists whatever structure makes sense. java-devel is organized as Eclipse proejcts, server-config is organized by servers (which is now down to one), and unix-devel has files just dumped into trunk. I don't do too much Unix development anymore. :-/

Anyway, the partitioning scheme seems to make cvs2svn barf with an error. I've opted instead to use cvs2svn to create a dumpfile which gets tweaked and then loaded in via svnadmin. Just incase it's useful to others, here's a current copy of the script:

#!/bin/bash

# Import CVS projects into new SVN repository in my weird structure...
#    /Grouping/trunk/Project/...
#              tags/Project/...
#              branches/Project/...

# Usage:
#    

GROUPING="$1"
PROJECT="$2"

if [ -z "$GROUPING" -o -z "$PROJECT" ]
then
   echo "Please include both the project grouping and the CVS project name."
   exit 1
fi

# Dump out the project...
/usr/local/cvs2svn/cvs2svn --dumpfile=/tmp/${PROJECT}.dump         --trunk=trunk/${PROJECT} --tags=tags/${PROJECT}         --branches=branches/${PROJECT} /home/cvsroot/${PROJECT}

# We need to drop the trunk/branches/tags directory creation as they are
# already present, hence the gawk script.
cat /tmp/${PROJECT}.dump | gawk '
BEGIN {
   ignore = 0;
}
{
   if ($0 == "Node-path: trunk" || $0 == "Node-path: branches" || $0 == "Node-path: tags") {
       ignore = 5;
   }
   if (ignore > 0) {
       ignore--;
   } else {
       print $0;
   }
}' | svnadmin load --parent-dir ${GROUPING} /home/svnroot/general

Lazy me...

2006-08-02T21:51:00.000-05:00

We've spent a lot of time in the yard mulching our garden, working on mulching my mothers garden, retrenched and buried new drain pipe around our house, helped our neighbors split wood (and we got about 1 1/2 cords out of it, so we sorta mooched).

But, as far as tech goes, I've been very listless. Not sure why -- I think it has something to do with summer hours. Oh well.

RobC v2

2006-06-01T23:25:00.000-05:00

I've gotten a bit carried away on the demo program. I wasn't satisfied with the function implementation which consisted of a separate command-pattern class per function. For instance, the functions supported were width(), height(), min(), max(), and plot() which amounted to five separate classes as well as the factory-type method to construct the appropriate class.

Thus, RobC now has the concept of invoking a methods in the Java JVM. Function declarations are, of course, now available as well as the return statement.

When putting together these screenshots, I did realize that I'm missing some simple datatype conversions from a number to a string. (Or string and number concatenation.) I have a hunch those will come along at some point.

Anyway, I have attached a v2 IDE screenshot showing a couple of method declarations and the final display showing that a does, indeed, contain 3 squared.

Back from trip, finally got internet back too...

2006-06-01T23:08:00.000-05:00

Wow, spent a few days at a conference in Las Vegas only to be greeted by a flooded basement when I came home! Nothing like running around to get a new sump pump and then hacking together newly sized pipes after a day of travel!

Fortunately, the basement is not finished. We had a few boxes with books in them and we haven't looked through it.

We also "lost" internet access in the same timeframe. I'm not certain any of our internal wiring or equipment was the culprit, either. I've been checking all week and putzing but haven't gotten it working. Last night I finally just grabbed the cable modem and connected it to the line that comes into the house (before any splitters) and it worked. I figured that the splitter was non-functional as a bidirectional splitter (TV worked, internet didn't). I hooked everything back up the way it was before - and things were still broken.

Today I came home... and everything is back to normal. Hmm. Then to make it more fishy, the cable company called me to see if everything was back to normal. Interesting. I wonder if the storms that came through last week caused some issues and they took a while in resolving them.

Anyway, it sucked not having the internet available for research!

Russ Rocks!

2006-05-18T17:57:00.000-05:00

We need a few more people to stand up and have a backbone. I continue to be very afraid of the conservative Christian agenda. My belief is that religion is extremely powerful. Unfortunately, it may be used for both good and evil and it's the latter that I fear.

JNLP

2006-05-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

One of the little issues with RobC is that I'm using Java 5.0. Unfortunately, I haven't handled it the best from within the application. Even after fixing it, I still don't, but at least I pop up an error message instead of never showing up on the desktop.

One way to deal with it is to use JNLP and launch from the web. Once launched, a person can launch the application at any time from the launch manager, a short cut, or from the website. Not a bad solution. It even detects which version of the JVM is in place.

What really stinks is that the error messages while putting the jnlp description file really really suck. Who'd've thunk that "href" is telling me that there is a jar tag that requires an href attribute. Maybe if the would speak in English and tell me?? That'd be nice.

Now I'm finding out that Charter apparantly doesn't recognize the JNLP file and doesn't deliver it with the appropriate MIME type. Can't set the .htaccess file nor a PHP script nor a SHTML file.

Anyone with ideas? I'm going to see if I can get tech support to fix it. But first I gotta find tech support. :-/

Slight turn in the ANTLR road...

2006-05-15T23:50:00.000-05:00

I've got a presentation in a couple of months and, surprisingly, I spent time to start planning out what I'm going to talk about. I would like to walk through the design of a language, implementation of the lexer, parser, and tree walker. That's a lot for an hour!

Anyway, I've created another tiny implementation of 'C' called 'RobC'. Yeah, not original on all fronts, but it is simplified. I'll probably have to tone it down for the presentation - and probably sugar coat a lot of it. (Plus, I'm pretty new to the topic myself.)

What I've got is a little IDE that runs 'RobC' too. You can type in a program, press Ctrl+R and it pops up in a graphic screen to show the results. Once complete, it dumps variables into a dialog box for a post-mortem. No debugger. If you write a tight loop, you need to kill the process. But, it's functional!

In the best world, I'd like to actually implement it completely within the allotted hour (the interpreter, however, would come pre-made and ready to go). So, I may shorten the requirements to just the expression elements used in the sample program(s), and it may be possible.

Found a bug in Spider soltaire...

2006-05-12T23:41:00.000-05:00

I'm sure its nothing new, but I think this is the first time it has happened to me.

If you are able to remove enough cards that you have less than 10 in the playing field, any waiting cards cannot be dealt out because you must have one card in each position on the playing field.

Oops!

(I'm installing software, and believe me, there's a lot of spare time to mess around!)

Time to rebuild

2006-05-12T19:02:00.000-05:00

I actually got the replacement harddrive earlier than HP said it would come (which is nice, seeing as I have time this weekend). The harddrive is, of course, blank. Meaning I get to start building it all up from scratch. That's not too bad - just time consuming - and I will be able to keep most of the software I'm not interested in off of the machine.

And another one bites the dust...

2006-05-10T21:36:00.000-05:00

This is harddrive number 3 that died for me. :-/

The only good news is that HP has actually been pretty good. After losing two drives last year (February and April), I purchased the extended warranty.

I don't think I spent over 50 minutes total on the phone today. I called from work, and I think I was on the phone about 20 minutes before we concluded I needed to call from home so the technician could have me check some stuff. Tonight I was on the phone a whopping 24 minutes (my home phone has a timer). New drive is shipping out, I swap and send the old one back.

Oh yeah! If it happens again "they'll escalate it". I'm reading between the lines in thinking that they give up on the hardware and we go after another laptop. I actually just want this drive to last forever - this reconfiguring everything isn't fun.

Fortunately, my automated backups are every Sunday at around 2am, so I haven't lost too much data.

ANTLR and very basic expression grammar

2006-04-30T22:33:00.000-05:00

Writing compilers is such an interesting topic. For some reason I want to implement a version of BASIC that targets multiple architectures. Why? Why not!

Being a Java guy, some fishing around brought me to ANTLR a while ago and I was able to implement a simple expression interpreter that handles multiple data types. Rather neat, really.

I'd like to extend this into the realm of a full fledged compiler. Not only a compiler, but a multiheaded beast that targets the 6502 (read: Apple II+), 65c02 (read: enhanced Apple IIe), 65816 (read: Apple IIgs), Java bytecode (read: easy application testing), and possibly PIC 16/18 (read: microcontroller goodness). Not to mention that I want to design and build a 65c02 or 65816 based computer from scratch. Talk about crazy and I appear to be it!

At any rate, I started this concept a number of times in the past year. Each one stumbled and I got interested in something else.

This time, I am starting very, very simple and then adding the complicated pieces on. I intend to get a compiler that is just a portion of the language but one that is the full depth back to the code generation.

I've got a grammar for which I'm actually generating pseudo-code. The grammar consists of only two data types, expressions only for addition and subtraction, variables must be declared, and a print statement. This should allow me to deal with tracking variable types, throwing errors, generating output, structuring the AST, and how to write unit tests for it.

Now, I need to figure out better error handling and how to construct unit tests to do a better job of verifying any progress I make. I think I'm actually almost to the point of actually generating target code.

Hopefully I'll have good news to report in a few weeks!

New bike!

2006-04-30T21:43:00.000-05:00

Well, maybe the story is that I got a bike at all. My wife and I came home with new Bianche Volpe bikes for each of us. Per Murphy's Law, that means that it must be crappy weather all weekend, and it has been.

However, we did get out for 30 minutes at the local schoolyard. Since my wife and I have never had clips for our bike -- actually, we haven't "had" bikes for about 15 years -- we expected to fall a few times. Our intention in going to the schoolyard was to get our falls in somewhere close to home and (hopefully) in grass. I lucked out and didn't fall -- just a stumble more than anything. My wife, unfortunately fell onto not-so-soft concrete.

That was Saturday. All day today (Sunday) she has had a really screwed up shoulder. As in she gets stuck laying down or sitting and I have to run over and get her on her feet. Not to mention the constant pain she is in.

What fun!!

Lesson learned: Don't fall on concrete. :-/

Zoomable picture from the Hubble...

2006-04-24T23:09:00.000-05:00

This is really really cool. It's amazing whats "out there." Zoom in and then pan around a bit. There seem to be stars and galaxies everywhere.

AppleCommander 1.3.4

2006-04-22T21:08:00.000-05:00

Good news! I've gotten John to help with AppleCommander. He's made a number of patches to the code - both fixing my screwups as well as enhancements - which I have incorporated back into the project. Now he's a team member who can access the source code directly.

Plus, he works on the Macintosh, so he can make Mac OS X builds. I can continue to make Windows and Linux builds. That pretty much covers the entire world! (Yes, AppleCommander is written in Java, but we need to test on various platforms as well as package for those platforms. So it's write once, package a number of times.)

Ok, its more like a small village. But it's still pretty cool.

MediaMVP & MythTV

2006-04-22T20:47:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally went ahead an purchased another MediaMVP. The intention is to have two MythTV stations hooked up - the existing on in the bedroom and now one in the greatroom.

Interesting thing is that Hauppauge updated to device. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the MediaMVP Media Center project has to extend their software to handle the booting. You see, my prior device booted via (what must be) mostly standard TFTP boot sequence. The new device doesn't. There's been some discussions about the revision just before mine, but nothing around mine. (I've got an H2 while the conversation was around the H1.)

Anyway, I chimed in and offered to act as a tester and general guinea pig. Not like I can do much else when it's network related! :-/

A little ray of sunshine

2006-04-16T10:01:00.000-05:00

Just to let you know, all is not dreary. I just came back from a quick trip to the local school where my son practices his biking. As of yesterday, he is stopping and starting on his own (a little miracle in and of itself).

He's also discovered how to make black skid marks as well as the exclamation "Sweet!"

Followup

2006-04-16T08:41:00.000-05:00

I had a good discussion with my mom yesterday on how to handle my co-worker. I have trouble calling this person a friend as friends (in my view) are not cruel and crass to each other. Not where it counts, anyway.

Another email arrived. One that started out with inaccurate statements and then went downhill from there.

To begin, I will concede that when asked about the gay rights sticker I have up at work, this discussion was launched which, in turn, lead to a discussion regarding crime. I now realize I was nieve expecting the discussion to remain on crime by my will alone.

What I intended to be a continued discussion regarding crime rates magically expanded into the presupposition that homosexuals are (by definition) sexual predators and hardened criminals. Not sure how that connects, but that's where it started.

I then was lectured on how bigotry has a closed mind.

It then progressed to the world has gone to hell because prayer in school has been banned. This was even backed up with charts (didn't give me the source and I'm sure I don't want to know). You know, the kind that go up and down and up and down. Somehow that up and down behavior is assumed to have been a downward trend. Until school prayer was banned, then the charts skyrocketed (meaning that bad things were going on).

In conclusion, I stand accused of being a non-Christian. Not sure where that comes from. I'm honestly not sure if that was simply an ad-hominem personal attack or if it was a wide-open attack on all Catholics. I suspect the latter.

My wife councils not responding. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to work. My mother coucils being firm and telling my co-worker that I really don't appreciate hearing these views and having them forced upon me. That seems more logical. After all, I never asked for this.

What would Jesus do? I think He would forgive. I think, in time, I will too. At the moment, however, I really just want to cry.

Hate is such an ugly thing.

Defend Science!

2006-04-13T21:23:00.000-05:00

Most excellent!! Looks like people are finally starting to get enough of the religious right trying to take over our lives. As it should be, the scientists are leading the way. Read the statement and sign on!

http://www.defendscience.org/index.html

I've been fed up with this for a very long while and I'm sure my wife will be quite happy that I can vent a tiny bit without having to chew her ear off. :-)

[Oh great, I think I just got myself warmed up.]

I've got a friend at work who I think has recently converted into a religion. That's wonderful. Really! The clues are:

It's against this persons' philosophy that humans could have evolved. (We're too special. Isn't that a sin or something??)

I get little presents consisting of DVDs on how evolution is wrong and creationism is right. (Returned immediately - really pissed me off.)

Then I start getting various emails. The latest one talked about how the USA is a Christian nation and all our laws are derived from the Ten Commandments. (Uh-huh, why isn't adultery against the law?? Shouldn't they be stoned to death? Not to mention all the internal inconsistencies. I may yet do a post detailing this one.) Nothing like seeing the beginning of our own Taliban.

It's frustrating that people are so insecure with their religious beliefs that they need to attack anything that seems to disagree with them. It's also scary since anything they do is motivated by their belief that God told them to do it. Religion is powerful. But, like anything powerful, it can be misused.

And that's where we sit today.

Retrocomputing is a lot of fun...

2005-08-30T23:20:00.000-05:00

I'm having a blast hunting down my old programs and posting them on my site. I've also contacted Mike Harvey, the editor of Nibble, since I found my stash as well as John Romero when I realized one of my "uncategorized" Nibble programs was actually one of his.

I've started the slow process of placing some of my programs (nothing impressive, but the comments should prove interesting) on the web page. I haven't run out of web space, but with screen shots as well as the archive, that is a definate possibility!!

Now I just need to buckle down for my next exam as well as maybe finish one of the myriad of projects I start......

Out of date...

2005-08-06T23:11:00.000-05:00

Wow, I just noticed that the May posts were still talking about trying to get software over to the IIGS.

For posterities sake, I seem to remember the Macintosh did work - but there was a lot of floppy copying. I finally got myself a Macintosh serial cable and a USB serial port (for the laptop). That gave me the ADB connection on the IIGS serial connector to a standard RS-232 connection. I then obtained a crossover cable which fortunately is DB-25 and DB-9 on each end so I can mix and match connections. That (finally) connected to the serial connector on the PC.

I could then use the terminal program on the PC to control the Apple IIGS via the serial connection. I got ahold of ADT 2004 and got a few disks shipped over that way. Once I had some communications programs, I could just use Xmodem, Ymodem, and finally Zmodem (with my own copy of ProTERM).

Very soon after getting all that working, I picked up a CFFA card from Rich Dreher, and he was kind enough to invite me over (ironically he lives within walking distance) and we chatted and got the card setup.

I've been developing with Merlin GS 4.12 and MD Basic. Not bad, probably ahead for their time, but nothing compared to what exists today!

To teach myself 65816 programming, I actually worked my way through the Programmer's Manual on the WDC web site. It has a number of errors, but there is enough information to identify them and the learn from it.

Project updates

2005-08-06T22:12:00.000-05:00

Harry's Adventure is progressing, albiet slowly. I haven't done any actual development on it recently, but I have been working on a side project tangentially related to Harry's Adventure.

The Apple Image Encoder will take a modern image and convert it to some Apple II graphics modes. Right now it converts to super hires, lores, and double lores.

My intent is to be able to get Harry into the title page for his game. For the super hires mode, it shouldn't be much of a problem. The lores and double lores modes, however probably won't work. Hopefully someone can give me hints on how to handle dithering with a fixed 16 color palette to achieve what appears to be more than 16 colors, so I can create better images in the earlier Apple II graphics modes (lores, hires, double lores, double hires).

A humorous take on the creationist vs the theory of evolution

2005-07-06T17:33:00.000-05:00

http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/p67.htm

More on the IIGS...

2005-05-04T22:36:00.000-05:00

Wow, failed again.

I came across a program that will use the PC parallel port and communicate with the IIGS via the game port. I happen to have a 25-pin to 9-pin adapter, so I hooked it up and tried it out. After entering a short program on the Apple II (remember, moving files still sucks) and starting up the PC program, I wasn't able to get it going.

However, the IIGS gameport connector is different than that on the original Apple II series, so maybe this is to be expected.

Anyway, Lisa brought home some more disks (people are scrounging for them so they can get rid of them) so I've got more software and a number of blanks, so that's improving. I just need to start doing the PMA transfer. (That's PC -> Macintosh -> Apple IIGS and doesn't stand for anything else that can fit the PMA acronym...)

Resource forks, part II

2005-05-03T22:24:00.000-05:00

Well, if I had the right software on the Macintosh, I guess I could have removed the resource fork right away in the beginning.

If I could copy files to the IIGS without corrupting the file, I could run something called "unforkit".

If the IIGS had a serial connection that was standard, I could transfer files via a serial cable and totally skip the intermediary step (need to figure this one out).

Unfortunately for me, that's putting the cart before the horse. (The byte before the bit??)

Fortunately, I hung on to my old Apple II books - and I have a number of references on the internals of ProDOS. I even have the Apple Exercisor disk that came with the Apple ProDOS technical reference.

I figured out how to hack the resource fork out of the file. It's not pretty, and I don't want to do it all the time. "unforkit" will make it more palatable, but I don't want to continue with the PC -> Macintosh -> IIGS triangle since it generally sucks.

Details of the surgery are as follows (and, remember, I fortunately have software that helps me out with the low-level details):

Locate the file by scanning the directory, the storage type is $5 (presumably indicates the resource fork). This is the high nibble of the first byte (just before the filename - the lower nibble is the length of the filename).
Go to the block identified in the key block pointer field (offset $11/$12).
This block does not list other blocks as expected: a) I think the first byte is the "real" storage type. b) The 2nd and 3rd byte are the real key block. Double-check it.
Patch the real key block into the directory entry and change the storage type back. The storage type can be $1 (1 block file), $2 (2-256? blocks) and $3 (257+ blocks).

Note that this procedure leaves some dangling blocks that won't go away until the disk is reformatted (or you tweak the used block table manually), so it's best to use an expendable disk.

Not something to do just for fun. That got me into the GS Shrinkit which handles resource forks without any difficulty, so I think I'm done with the hacks.

Resource forks?

2005-05-02T22:20:00.000-05:00

I finally got some disks that boot created. First I needed to scrounge around for 800K 3.5" floppies. Then the Macintosh disk creator program failed to create bootable disks. People told me to use a program called DiskDup+ to create the disks. Fortunately, that worked.

Now I'm trying to get some additional software over to the IIGS, but its not what I expected. If I copy files from a PC to the Macintosh to the Apple IIGS, they don't work. What I've found out is that the Macintosh is magically adding a resource fork to the file. As far as the IIGS is concerned, the file is corrupted.

Back to the drawing board...

First MediaMVP patch!

2005-05-01T22:17:00.000-05:00

I spent way too much time on this, but it bothered me that the on-screen display (when toggled) would show how far into a recording I was but wouldn't show me the total length of said recording. I also tweaked the OSD display a bit...

C is like another world for me - one that I haven't visited for a good 10 years. I mostly do Java, so this took some remembering. But I did it!

We'll see what th guru's think. It'd be cool to have it become part of regular distribution!

Retrocomputing: Apple IIGS

2005-04-30T22:07:00.000-05:00

My wife brought home a little present from me: An old Apple IIGS that isn't being used anymore. I'd hinted that I could help the school dispose of them since it has converted entirely to the Windows world.

I need to get some software for it... I've got drives but no media. But I should be able to get something copied over using an old Mac - Apple hasn't totally abandoned the platform since they've left the last system disks available in their support site. You just need a Macintosh to put it all together. :-)

Anyway, I've spent some time showing Harry that if he types PRINT 123 + 456 he will see the result. I guess that's the first programming he's done. Yaaay!

He's also been enjoying the "I've been thinking of a number between 1 and 100" game. (High and Low?) I wrote a quick game for him so he could play it on the IIGS. He actually played it for quite a while.

I've been an Apple II nut since I bought one in high school and I don't think it ever really ends.

MediaMVP & MythTV

2005-04-29T21:45:00.000-05:00

I've been running a MythTV prototype for a number of months now. I've purchased a server to sit in the basement and act as the master backend (Myth terminology) and basically be a great big disk drive. It has one capture card in it and can handle somewhere close to 200 hours of video.

MythTV itself isn't that hard to setup. There are a few quirks, but the mail lists either have the answers (as others have come across it) or can get answers pretty quickly. It has a web interface that can be used for scheduling and can play recorded shows, DVDs, music, show the weather, view news stories, play video games, be a video phone, as well as other things. Great ideas, great software, wonderful community, and is a lot of fun.

The difficulty lies in getting the Linux video capture and TV-out hardware configured correctly. The development teams are very active, but due to the fact that they didn't design the hardware, probably don't have the exact hardware specifications, and don't know every revision of the hardware available until it is discovered, it can be dicey when you're new to the process. My first install took... at least a week, if not two. The second install was mostly done before the first day was over. (None of these are dedicated time, of course, but it is time spent daily putzing and asking questions and gathering information.)

Anyway, I've been interested in alternate Myth frontends - with hardware today, the machine doesn't need a lot of raw horsepower. The MediaMVP is one of these, and from New Egg it cost me less than $90 (including shipping). It's a tiny computer, really, and it runs Linux. There is a project called MediaMVP Media Center to have it act as a MythTV front-end too. That's why I'm interested in this.

It took me just an hour or two to get it hooked up in my den, to get the server configured, and to test it and play with it. I came home early on Friday and spent an hour or so pulling a wire into the bedroom so I could hookup the device. Works like a charm and is easy to use. It doesn't do commercial skip (yet), but it does have fast forward!

Third time's a charm?

2005-04-25T21:30:00.000-05:00

Well, this is harddrive number three for me. This year. Started the year on number one, replaced bad harddrive mid-February with number two, and mid-April I got to replace another bad harddrive with number three. Reinstalling all that software sucks - as well as getting the licenses straightened out.

At least HP has been pretty good through it all. If this one goes too, I'm going to try swapping laptops.

Lessons learned? Backup backup backup. And make sure your backups are in a place where they won't get lost! (One of mine was in the /tmp folder of my server - and I found out that is does get cleaned up - the hard way.)

Don't know her, but I'm proud of her

2005-04-15T14:24:00.000-05:00

Good to see that people stand up for themselves against bigotry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4449161.stm

It's digusting that someone who is obviously a great coach gets thrown out due to no fault of her own. Note that there are no accusations of improper behavior. It's just that she's lesbian. That's bigotry plain and simple.

Wikipedia in the news...

2005-03-08T12:19:00.000-06:00

I love Wikipedia, and Wired has an article about the "wikipedians". As usual, Slashdot has a posting and the ensuing discussion is interesting.

Congrats!

2005-03-05T13:47:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to my wife who not only is Teacher of the Year for her school but also won a Kohl Scholarship (one of 100 given out in the state).

Love your neighbor as yourself

2005-02-24T18:56:00.000-06:00

Thank God for these people! They act in good faith .

Don't borrow and spend...

2005-02-21T22:08:00.000-06:00

Tax and spend. Please! Borrowing and spending seems to hide the details. Neat graph here... If we tax and spend, people will revolt and the spending will go down!

Another chart here...

15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense

2005-02-21T08:56:00.000-06:00

Never thought Fark would provide an interesting article, but lo and behold, one has been provided! From Scientific American in 2002, here is an article entitled "15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense."

Harddrive failure...

2005-02-09T20:42:00.000-06:00

Well, it looks like my harddrive in my laptop is on the verge of dying. This morning, I was greeted by a screen saying something about a hardware failure. (Side note: Being in the computer field myself, I was the typical consumer and didn't make a note of the phrasing nor the wording, so it is just a vague recollection.)

My laptop had made some odd noises last night, but I assumed that it was a fan slightly out of whack - it wasn't noisy enough for me to get concerned, just something to keep an eye. And then, in the morning, it's got some funky message on it. (I do remember that it wasn't a Windows environment nor was it the much despised Blue Screen of Death.)

When I forced the power off (hold the power button) and then turned it on, the funny noise came back with a vengence and the computer wouldn't boot up. It sat on the screen with the white dots for a very long time (like minutes) and eventually got into the starting windows graphic. Then it gave an error and quit.

Being relatively early in the morning, I decided to call HP immediately. I actually didn't have to wait for too long, and got connected pretty quickly. Of course, by the time we got to turning on the machine, it booted into Safe Mode. I exited Safe Mode and ended up at the XP logon screen very quickly. Go figure! They gave me a case number and asked if I had a minute to talk to a QA (I think) person.

QA person gets on the phone asks something about my computer - which I had turned off. I turn it on and lo-and-behold, I get the dredded "non-system disk" message. That's it. Well, they took it a bit more seriously at that point. :-)

However, I had to get Harry to school, so I said I'd call back in the evening.

----======----

I finally got some time around 8pm this evening. Computer booted right up. I got a backup (my prior one was actually early January, so I wasn't desperate) and then called. Within 10 minutes of talking to the support person, they were giving me the order confirmation number for my replacement harddrive.

Wow! Good experience for a bad event. Obviously, I'd prefer that the harddrive didn't fail - but if this is the support when I'm dealt a lemon, I'll keep HP/Compaq on my side.

On a related topic, I must say that these support folks were really quite nice and very polite. There was a minor trouble with communication (they're in India, so there is an accent and there's this time lag of what seemed to be a second or two which drove me nuts) - but overall, I was pleased with the experience. I think if I were dependent on them directing me for the support effort, I may have gotten a bit frustrated - but I remember getting frustrated with Gateway tech support people who were based in the midwest (where I'm from) in the early 1990's, so that may be part and parcel of the experience.

Running under the radar...

2005-02-03T23:03:00.000-06:00

We have a project at work that started life as a "lunch" project. Simply put, it is a request tracking system. We like it - we like it a lot.

However, it has never been a sanctioned project. That is actually one of its strengths. We were a group of self-organizing employees who had a need and addressed it - succefully. All without any sort of management approval or direction - up to the point of a real installation. Fortunately for us, we got approval to move our product into the production environment.

That was 2001 (or so). We started with 2 developers who also were the users, designers, requirement analysts, architects, and managers. We surveyed existing products, saw what was available, and knew they didn't address our business needs. We had done request tracking umpteen times in the past and had a good handle on what worked and what didn't work.

Our passion for the project drove it until early 2003.

Last year, we didn't deploy the project at all.

Tonight, we did our first deployment (which was needed badly and is still needed) in about 18 months. The team has grown - we now have 5 or 6 people who pitch-in "as time permits".

I see this as more than a useful product/project. I see this as a philosophy change - and one that has potential on changing how some projects are organized. In general, the company runs projects from the top-down. Business has a need, gets the money, defines the things to be done. Then, IT management makes a chart of tasks, assigns out tasks, and work commences.

The change is on the IT side and is significant. We, the developers and business, need to self-organize. This pushes the responsibility and the drive onto the shoulders that count. This gives us, the community, the werewithal to accomplish goals and to take ownership in a product. This doesn't remove management. I would expect that this would help management - as long as we remain a functional team (instead of dysfunctional).

This is not a new concept, but its one I need to figure out to drive the project forward and how to spark the drive we had early on.

It's similar to open-source, except it's still directed toward a business goal. My thoughts on how to drive this project have leaned towards terminology very close to Agile methodologies... which reminds me -

I did hear a presentation last year by Dave Thomas (of Pragmatic Programmers). He was talking about running internal projects in an open-source manner. I remember being intensely interested in what he was saying, but I need to dig out my notes and see where it goes.

We'll see where it goes! For this to be successful, it needs to also remain under the radar; otherwise, it is just another dreary project for people to work on.

Freedom for all means freedom for all!

2005-02-02T23:38:00.000-06:00

From the State of the Union address:

Because marriage is a sacred institution and the foundation of society, it should not be re-defined by activist judges. For the good of families, children, and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage.

To me, this is plain bigotry and I am so sick an tired of it. Sadly, I fear Wisconsin will soon head this way.

If you truly believe that marriage is just between a man and a woman, I apologize to whomever your partner is. Your relationship is based upon the thinnest of foundations. No wonder marriage is threatened today.

I agree that statistically, marriage does appear to be "threatened" - remember, roughly 50% of marriages today will fail. But, since gays are unable to be married, I see no reasoning that indicates preventing their marriage will help. My parents are divorced and gays had nothing to do with it. My sister-in-law(s) have both been divorced and gays had nothing to do with those divorces.

Maybe, just maybe, any consenting adult should have the freedom to get married as long as they both want a life-long partnership. Maybe we should make it harder for everyone to get married since we're so concerned about marriage and such experts on marriage.

Unfortunately, this appears to be driven by two things:

Religion. Somehow "God created man and woman" has been translated to God does not want a man/man or woman/woman relationship. Somehow we have forgotten that without men and women, our species would not continue. Somehow we think that by "punishing" gays the marriage problem will go away. Somehow we think that society will fall apart because marriage may not mean a man/woman relationship. Somehow marriage lost the concepts of "love", "partnership", "respect", and "life-long" just to name a few things. Somehow marriage by the state is getting crossed with marriage in the church. Somehow we have forgotten about the 1st and 16th amendments which prevent the establishment of a State religion.
Hate. Many people hate gays. They are reviled. They are different. And, we just can't stand it, can we? Everyone needs to be just like me.

There is more to the price of freedom than our soldiers willing to give their lives defending our country. There is a price of freedom in ensuring freedom prevails here at home for everyone - even if you don't like them. If we fail in this quest, we have failed every person who has given their life for freedom. If we fail in this quest, we have failed in upholding the very foundation of this great country.

If we fail in our quest for freedom, the American Dream is gone.

It is our duty. It is our privelege. It is our honor.

Never forget this.

Quote for the night...

2005-02-02T23:31:00.000-06:00

State of the Union address:

The abolition of slavery was only a dream — until it was fulfilled.

Uhh, isn't any dream a dream until it has been fulfilled?

Sorry, caught me off guard there... make those speech writers check their work before they put you on stage.

Not for the faint of heart...

2005-02-02T23:22:00.000-06:00

Just want to whine a little...

I've recently picked up a (used) dual Xeon machine - a Compaq EVO W6000 workstation. I'll be using it for my Myth master backend. It's a good machine.

However, after spending an hour messing around with adding additional harddrives, I'm frustrated. Not really Compaq's fault, either.

I've got the original boot disk - 40GB. I had a 200GB drive that I had picked up a while ago (and never used, believe-it-or-not) and just got an additional 200GB drive. Unfortunately, the workstation is only setup for 2 hard drives.

Isn't that silly? Some business buys machines that are dual Xeon capable. Most likely these will be picked up by someone with grander purposes than email, internet surfing, and word processing. Something big. But, you limit the design to 2 internal drive bays. D'oh!

Anyway, I spent the hour messing around with my 5.25" adapters - 4 different kinds. None of them worked. Either the internal screw holes did not align with the threadded holes on the harddrive (standards people!), or the holes aligned, but the area I needed to get at was behind another piece of metal (design!). Umm, these are screws people - I need to get at it with a screwdriver!?

I've settled for an extra 2ooGB for the short-term. I'll futz with it later; I'm not tossing 200GB away.

A great essay...

2005-01-21T10:45:00.000-06:00

Read "What You'll Wish You'd Known". I've never read anything by Paul Graham, but this is right on the button. Quote:

Now I know a number of people who do great work, and it's the same with all of them. They have little discipline. They're all terrible procrastinators and find it almost impossible to make themselves do anything they're not interested in. One still hasn't sent out his half of the thank-you notes from his wedding, four years ago. Another has 26,000 emails in her inbox.

I'm not saying you can get away with zero self-discipline. You probably need about the amount you need to go running. I'm often reluctant to go running, but once I do, I enjoy it. And if I don't run for several days, I feel ill. It's the same with people who do great things. They know they'll feel bad if they don't work, and they have enough discipline to get themselves to their desks to start working. But once they get started, interest takes over, and discipline is no longer necessary.

It's a long essay, but its worth it. I see parts of my behavior - and I think this articulates what I haven't ever figured out. At last I know why I'm weird.

Unfortunately, my interests are spread all-over-the-place.

Oh well, I'll never get bored!

Irony

2005-01-18T22:01:00.000-06:00

It's ironic that I emailed my Dad about Picasa and made a note that it hasn't been updated for a while and wondered if it would stick around for long...

Well, version 2.0 just got released.

Did you know that command-line programs have Easter Eggs?

2005-01-16T10:22:00.000-06:00

I didn't know that command-line programs also had Easter Eggs. Really!

I've been playing with MythTV and followed the Fedora Myth(TV)ology directions. Having never used the apt-get tool, I messed with it a little bit. I'd noticed this bit about super cow powers but didn't follow up on it. I guess that it is an Easter Egg in apt-get. Go figure!!

$ apt-get help
apt 0.5.15cnc6 for linux i386 compiled on Oct 3 2004 19:42:01
... snip ...
This APT has Super Cow Powers.

$ apt-get moo
       (__)

       (oo)

 /------\/

/ |     || 

*  /\---/   ~~   ~~ 
...."Have you mooed today?"...

Red eye reduction

2005-01-15T13:18:00.000-06:00

My dad called me today asking about what software I use for red eye removal. Evidentally, the software he uses does not modify the JPEG image, but creates a small file that contains the edits. Presumably, you then need the specific software program to view the modified image.

This was my two-bit review for my dad:

The Microsoft Office Picture manager - well, it sucks for red eye removal.

Picasa is a free package. Google bought the company last year and the Picasa editing software is free. However, I don’t think it’s been updated since – if that continues, I suspect it will lag behind. However, as of today, the abilities of the program are pretty neat. It looks like it will run on Windows 98. The only picture it couldn’t handle was PC280053; apparently one of the red eyes was too pink for detection. Otherwise, it seemed pretty good for red eye reduction.
Download Picasa

I then putzed around and saw that I had Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Kit. This was pretty easy - but you need to 'import' the images into the program… although, when I edited the red eye in the PC280053 file, it saved the file as “PC280053_edited.JPG” in the same directory as the original picture. So I suspect “import” is just an akward term. The red eye tool was really easy, however. Just draw a box around both eyes, click a button, and it worked.
Download Adobe Photoship Album Starter Kit

I’d download both of these today just in case they go away at some point...

These are (currently) both programs that are free of charge.

Duck Hunt

2004-11-24T15:15:00.000-06:00

Woo-hoo! I just got 294,900 on Duck Hunt. That's up to a whopping round 15.

Ok, so it's out of date, but Harry and I needed a break. Maybe we'll bring it down to G&G's for Thanksgiving. Then we have something to do besides watch TV.

Java Communications API and Eclipse

2004-11-19T14:43:00.000-06:00

Has anyone gotten the Java Communications API to work with Eclipse? I'm trying to develop some Java code to work over either the serial port or the parallel port, but Eclipse refuses to recognize the libraries.

For instance, I can open the type CommPortEnumerator but not compile - the import statement has the following error message:
The imported type javax.comm.CommPortEnumerator is not visible

I do have my system setup correctly. I can go to the command-line and compile and then execute code that sees the API fine. Eclipse just refuses to recognize it.

I posted this at the Eclipse.org newsgroups. Hopefully someone will point out what I'm missing.

UPDATE: The light finally came on when I realized that I was using two differenct classes - one that was package scoped in Eclipse and the other was a public class. Damn, I hate it when I miss something like that!!

For future reference on installing the Java Communications API, here's what I've determined for placement of files in relation to a JRE:
1. <JRE>\bin\win32com.dll
2. <JRE>\lib\javax.comm.properties
3. <JRE>\lib\ext\comm.jar

Where JRE is one of:
a. C:\j2sdk1.4.2_06\jre
b. C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2_06

I'm changing my mind...

2004-11-14T10:42:00.000-06:00

I'm going to flip-flop a little bit. After some more thought, reading the articles and discussions on Slashdot, and a simple realization, I'll drop my thought that Intelligent Design is a science. From my perspective, it is essentially evolution wrapped by faith. That is fine if you wish to believe in a greater creative force (and it is difficult not to think there is with all the "coincidences" that exist), it still isn't science. Once faith or belief comes into play, you're out of the realm of science.

Teacher of the Year

2004-11-09T20:49:00.000-06:00

I forgot to congratulate Lisa on her earning the Teacher of the Year award this year.

It'd a double-edged sword, though. Now she's the one that gets to represent the school for the Kohl Scholarship. That means lots of extra work.

Robinson Crusoe

2004-11-09T20:32:00.000-06:00

That was really cool. My son and I just finished reading Robinson Crusoe together. We read it in less than a week (4 or 5 days, I think).

He was interested enough that he would ask to have it read to him. I was a little leary of the cannibals as well as the fighting - but I'd rather it come from me, where I can discuss this stuff with him and have Harry understand why they are bad. Plus, the book was published by Scholastic and is mine from when I was a kid.

Anyway, that's 127 pages. He then asked if I could read it to him again! Wow.

If anyone has ideas of stories that are actually good for an almost 6-year-old, I'm interested. We've read the Thomas stories umpteen times (and that's the mega-book of all Thomas stories). I'm trying to keep the stories under 200 pages (I figure that will be the maximum Harry can handle before losing interest in the story). Obviously, I'd prefer something a bit more kid-friendly. Robinson Crusoe just happened to be the first book I found that I thought he'd listen to for the entire book.

I'm thinking I still want to wait on the C.S. Lewis The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe stories for a while. They're about 200 pages apiece, the font is smaller, and there aren't as many pictures.

Evolution vs. Creationism

2004-11-07T13:42:00.000-06:00

This is a sad story. I have no trouble with Creationism, but to tout it as a scientific theory is a sad state of affairs. To my knowledge, there is no scientific theory of Creationism - it is solely based upon ones faith. It should not be taught in any science class. It makes sense to teach it either in a religous setting or in a class about (one or many) world religions.

Intellegent Design, on the other-hand, does appear to be a valid scientific theory. I can understand people who may want to put this into the science class. As long as there is evidence for it and it is coming from scientists and not theologins.

This PDF document entitled "Sabotaging Science: Creationist Strategy in the '90s" may be of interest to others.

I live in Wisconsin, and I don't want to see faith over-riding science. Science should be an unbiased view of our world. If evolutionary theory is wrong, it will be disproven by science itself. Not by literal interpretation of the Bible.

Linux desktop with X-Win 32

2004-11-06T18:17:00.000-06:00

I did a tiny bit of fishing and found that with X-Win32 (and any X software I presume) I can sit at my Windows XP desktop and launch a window that contains the full Linux desktop. For the few that are interested, here's the support document describing how to set it up.

The only thing I did after running through the directions was to change my SSH connection to run the gnome-desktop instead of xterm.

/usr/bin/gnome-session >/dev/null 2>&1

I got a lot of error messages. Not knowing if I should care, I just funneled the messages away. Like any good user!!

I didn't know this...

2004-11-05T22:17:00.000-06:00

...and I wouldn't be surprised if this were true.

According to this story, somewhere around May of 2001 our erstwhile nation gave $43 million dollars to a certain country ruled by the Taliban. The rabid dog then bit the hand that fed it.

Ironically, I was just telling somebody at work that I've got to quit it with any political-type blogging. There's plenty other sources that are much better that my meager scraps.

Something funny happened in the network...

2004-11-04T21:35:00.000-06:00

This actually happened a couple of days ago, but I thought I should post about it - I'm sure someone will tell me what I was missing.

First off, networks aren't my thing. I'm very happy the magic of DHCP was created. It makes life a lot easier for those of us that aren't TCP/IP (et al) wizards. It makes life easier for those of us who don't want to be TCP/IP wizards. I fall into both categories.

Now that the groundwork has been laid, here's the story: I was setting up my "new" server. To facilitate the process, I kept it in my office and grabbed an old router since I only have one network connection in the office. Not a big deal and it should work great... right?

(Not the best picture, but MS Paint isn't the best tool!)

Anyway, the BEFSR41 router was initially connected via the Uplink port. I turned off the DHCP server from the BEFSR41 at some point during my testing.

The Windows XP box had no interference from the BEFSR41 machine and use the WRT54G as its gateway. My terminology may be wrong, but when I opened a web browser to http://192.168.1.1, I would see the WRT54G pages.

The Fedora Linux box saw the BEFSR41 router as its gateway. Again, my definition is by opening a browser window and hitting http://192.168.1.1. I changed the GATEWAY variable (/etc/sysconfig/network) to be 192.168.1.1 late in the game.

The Windows XP machine had full connectivity with the internet. The Fedora Linux box did not.

Here's the weird part: I'm certain the Linux box worked for one evening. The next morning - not rebooting - it couldn't get to the internet again. I have no idea why.

When I tried hooking the BEFSR41 to the network through the WAN port, it didn't work for either machine. This was more like what I was expecting.

After toying around with it for a couple of days, I decided I didn't really need it in the office anymore (once Linux was installed, I don't need physical access anymore). I put it in the basement, booted it up, and I've been just fine! I also removed the extra router (BEFSR41) from my office since I don't need it anymore.

I'm just puzzled. If it didn't work (which I sort of expected), I would expect to see both the Linux and Windows XP machines not have access to the internet. Or both work.

I guess I didn't expect to get it both ways! ;-)

Etching your own circuit boards...

2004-11-04T20:57:00.000-06:00

This is a really cool discussion on how to etch your own circuit boards! Now that I have a laser printer, I should give this a try. Being in Wisconsin, I suppose I may have to wait until summer.

Harry's wrist...

2004-11-01T23:00:00.000-06:00

We were out shopping for furniture today and found some barstools for the kitchen. We were picking out fabric when something happened to Harry elsewhere in the store. (I forgot to mention that he had wandered off.) "Somehow," a sofa table had tipped over onto his left hand. Long story short, we went to the walk-in, and were fortunate. He may have something chipped - but no fracture and no breaks. He's in a splint for the next few days. Unless, of course, we get a call that the x-rays show something more serious... here's hoping!

Vote!

2004-11-01T22:53:00.000-06:00

Don't forget to vote! Don't let either party tell you not to vote. Don't let anyone intimidate you. Just do it. I don't care if you vote for Mickey Mouse - I just want to hear that you did it.

It's a family event - so take the kids too. I'm going before work with my son. My wife is going after work with him. Our schedules are such that we cannot vote together, but we'll vote non-the-less.

It's your duty.
It's your freedom.
It's your country.

Take a stand.

Flash drives

2004-10-25T19:42:00.000-05:00

I also just received, not only my Star Wars DVD and Lisa's Xanadu DVD, but a 1GB flash drive. Prices have finally fallen to a point where I'm able to carry 1GB around in my pocket. It's crazy, but it'll be very nice for carting MP3's to work.

Computers are cheap!!

2004-10-25T19:25:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I bought a new computer for my in-laws. A Compaq Presario SR1214NX desktop, HP DeskJet 3845 printer, and a MAG 771FS-S 17" monitor. I couldn't find a specific link for the desktop, but it apparantly is part of the SR1000 series. It had an AMD 2900+ cpu, 512MB RAM, 80GB drive, DVD drive, CD-RW drive, network card, and modem.

All for $770. Less the $290 in rebates I just mailed in, and that nets out at $480.

Sub-$500 is here! The only piece missing was a really nice video card - but most people don't care about that. Oh, and speakers, but they're cheap too.

At any rate, quite an upgrade for them - the computer I replaced was bought pre-Harry, I think. That would make it 1998 or so. :-)

Long time, no type...

2004-10-25T19:10:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged for a while again. We'll see where this goes...

I've been playing with TWiki. We've been using it at work, and - once you get used to the idea - a wiki is a good repository. I decided to use it partly because I don't want to use two different wiki's, and TWiki does seem to be one of the more capable wiki's around.

The bad part is that it is slow. But, I'm getting over that.

I've uncovered one flaky part - and it just may be my old RedHat 8.0 install. Sometimes the title and left menu don't show up. I've even had just the left menu show up. Not sure why, either. Usually refreshing the page is sufficient.

For those who are curious, here's a link to Rob's TWiki. It may be shut down at any time, and my uplink is only 128K, so it's not the fastest. Especially when my Azureus client is still seeding on the latest Fedora release. (6.8GB sent so far!!)

Disappointing...

2004-09-19T07:38:00.000-05:00

This is a sad state of affairs. Unfortunately, I expect my own state (Wisconsin) to go the same way. We've had to amend the US Constitution twice now for something that, in retrospect, should have been obvious. My bet is that it will be amended again to grant every one equal rights. Unfortunately, not for a while, however...

Quick updates...

2004-09-10T21:12:00.000-05:00

I've been neglecting the blog for a while...

I've been busy studying - I took the first CPCU exam on Tuesday. It was as hard (if not a bit harder) than I was expecting! The first pass took me close to 90 minutes, and the 2nd pass was another 60 or so. That's 2 hours and 30 minutes spent on the exam. The amazing part is that by Thursday I received an email congratulating me on passing my exam. I thought that was a very good turn-around!

Tuesday was also another big day. Harry started school! This was astounding - the first day of school for him. Ever. I shifted my day so I start and end 90 minutes later than I did last week. This enables me to stay home and get Harry up. We then have time to eat breakfast, feed dog, do piano practice, and read or do something else together. That is, if he doesn't squander it all being grumpy. (c:

Anyway, with all the free time, I need to figure out which project to work on first. I have somewhere around 6 right now. So, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to work!!

My ANT input tag problem...

2004-08-20T17:28:00.000-05:00

I had written earlier that the ANT input tag no longer has a default handler under Eclipse 3.0. I guess I wasn't quite correct - just a default that changed to help people out with ANT task memory issues.

I had let the issue drop until somebody asked about it... I reposted my question and got an answer almost immediately! Here's the Eclipse Bugzilla entry.

Simple solution: When running the ANT task, on the JRE tab, select "Run in the same JRE as the workspace". That should be good enough for me... (c:

I did note that "version" must be a pre-defined property now, but that's easy to resolve.

Nutty

2004-08-15T09:48:00.000-05:00

It sounds like advertertisors at the Olympics have gone a bit far. So I can't drink this water, but I can drink that water? Because of a logo? Like people care - they're thirsty! Oh, and forget having the family wear the same T-shirts...

Why I will vote for John Kerry

2004-07-29T23:15:00.000-05:00

Let's honour this nation's diversity; let's respect one another; and let's never misuse for political purposes the most precious document in American history, the Constitution of the United States.

This is why I will vote for John Kerry: A simple belief in freedom for all and in allowing individuals to judge their own morality and control their own destiny. If you belive that your morality is so supreme that basic human rights can be removed from one set of peoples, you do not understand America nor do you value freedom.

This is priceless and worthy of sacrifice.

On flip-flopping

2004-07-28T20:59:00.000-05:00

Let's talk about flip-flops. I won't spell it out for you - think of the current stance of President Bush and read the following:

So, before being elected, our "compassionate" conservative President (which is possible, I just don't believe President Bush is compassionate) was planning on keeping President Clinton's "leave it alone" attitude as well as originally supporting Roe vs. Wade. Now he's flip-flopped.

So, let's quit the name-calling and get on to the issues!

[An aside, and somewhat a different topic is this: Why does Vice President Dick Cheney not beat up President Bush for his hatred of homosexuality? Dick Cheney's daughter is a lesbian! I'd be vociferously protesting such a move myself.]