THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE

deviant_ @ 2008-06-19T15:58:00

2008-06-19T19:58:46Z

Is this working? Is Warren crazy? Only time will tell.

sie falsch nennen dies eine "meme", ich vermute

2008-06-07T05:45:08Z

You are in a mall when zombies attack. You have:
1. One weapon
2. One song blasting on the speakers
3. One famous person to fight along side you.

1. The Davey Crockett.
2. March of the Pigs
2. Bruce Cambpell

Fedora 9!

2008-05-13T15:47:48Z

After much work, Fedora 9 is finally out. It pretty much rules, so you should really check it out. Digg it here

¡Brahmā† bores me!

2008-05-10T10:39:46Z

1. Do you like blue cheese salad dressing?
It's the worst way to use bleu cheese. You should try it before bed; it makes for great dreams.

2. Have you ever smoked heroin?
No.

3. Do you own a gun?
Not right now.

4. What's your favorite drink at Starbucks or other specialty coffee shop?
The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows
The government is corrupt
And we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death.

Starbucks FTL.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?
Yes. Always. Except with Psy{chiatr|cholog}ists. They're way easier.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?
So, so good. Too bad they're made of death. Cheese makes them better. And worse. Try them sliced up in Mac & Cheese. Then try kielbasa that way. Then die fat dumb and so, so happy.

7. Favorite Christmas song?
I hate so much about Christianity, it's hard to admit it -- I love Christmas carols. I know, it's weird. It's hard to pick a favorite. Oh Come, All Ye Faithful, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, or Oh, Holy Night? Or, though it's not actualy even Christmas-related and certainly not a Christmas Carol, despite being played most frequently in proximity to Christmas, the John Coltrane version of My Favorite Things. But that probably can't count, because I like musicals and jazz a bit and, well, simply love most of that musical.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
I've been trying to cut back on that.

9. Can you do pushups?
Yes.

10. Favorite piece of jewelry?
Not really, though I'm not against the idea per se.

11. Favorite hobby?
Yes.

12. Do you have A.D.D.?
It hasn't been called that in the literature on the subject in quite some time, but yes.

13. What's one trait that you hate about yourself?
I'm completely incapable regarding scheduling.

14. Middle name?
Yes.

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment
Jill
Bob
Annestesia

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink?
Water
Water
Guiness

17. Current worry right now?
Socks. Holes. It's 6:30 Anti-Meridian.

'Nuff said.

18. Current hate right now?
Insufficient sampling aparati.

19. Favorite place to be?
There's probably somewhere.

20. How did you bring in the New Year?
I don't recall.

21. Do you like to travel?
3.

22. Name three people who will complete this?
You lose 22 points for not presenting your answer in the form of a question.

23. Do you own slippers?
Why, what on Earth do you mean?

24. What color shirt are you wearing?
Blue.

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?
Yes.

26. Can you whistle?
Yes.

27. Favorite color?
Yes.

28. Would you be a pirate?
I already am, arrrrr.

29. What songs do you sing in the shower?
My Favorite Things, Sixteen Tons, Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty of Infidelity, some other stuff.

30. Favorite girl's name?
Anastasia.

31. Favorite boy's name?
Not really.

32. What's in your pocket right now?
The Puzzle(tm), 9-May-2008.

33. Last thing that made you laugh?
The look on Joe's face when he realized Son Of A Gun isn't a Nirvana song.

34. Best bed sheets as a child?
Justice League of America.

35 Worst injury you've ever had?
Broken femur. Twice in one summer, at the same spot.

36 Do you love where you live?
It's a fun MSA, but Arlington is getting more and more aggravatingly exurban.

37 How many TVs do you have in your house?
As many as I want. Or more, or less. They're surprisingly virtualizable.

38 Who is your loudest friend?
WHAT? WHAT? NICE BOY, BUT HE'S ABOUT AS SMART AS A BAG OF WET MICE!

(Seriously, I'm pretty loud. Hard to compare.)

39 How many pets do you have?
None living at the moment. Maybe some will be living some day.

40 Does someone have a crush on you?
You'd have to ask them.

41 What is your favorite book?
Snow Crash.

42 What is your favorite candy?
Eye candy. This is the first pictures google images finds that has nipples and isn't terrifying to even look at. I think we should all be happy about that.

43 Favorite Sports Team?
No.

44 What were you doing 12 AM last night?
Dunno.

45 What was the first thing you thought of ~~when you woke up?~~
Is it the weekend?

†) sorry androidqueen, I couldn't resist.

deviant_ @ 2008-05-07T05:42:00

2008-05-07T09:43:12Z

Dear NStar,

Thanks for the 5:30am brownout. I can't tell you how much I love getting woken up by the sound of a screaming UPS only to discover that half of the building has power.

No really, it's great.

It's that time again.

2008-04-09T06:41:25Z

Every once in a while, I have to note that the Tropical Fish Song does not have enough representation on the Internet.

To help correct this problem, I have also posted a link on my people page.

_previously

deviant_ @ 2008-04-09T01:49:00

2008-04-09T05:52:59Z

Hrmms. Am I the only one who thinks that Goats is setting up the Bartender to pose as the archvillain vis-à-vis Jon?

22222222222222222222222222222

2007-03-14T05:54:12Z

So, this month's adderall prescriptions...

... they're script numbers N222223 and N222224. So close, and yet so far away.

Also, CVS has changed their script labels this month. It's one single printed label now, without any unnecessary add-ons to remind you to be careful about this, that, or the other. For the first time ever, I received no "DO NOT USE WHILE BREAST FEEDING. CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR OR RPH." label.

I really, really hope I never have to breast feed anybody.

thinkpaddy goodness

2007-03-02T21:16:15Z

thinkpaddy goodness, originally uploaded by atbash.

So, I finally "fixed" my laptop ;)

deviant_ @ 2007-02-22T02:19:00

2007-02-22T07:21:39Z

I was bored, and I annotated this flickr post.

That's all.

deviant_ @ 2007-02-07T01:19:00

2007-02-07T06:19:22Z

Somebody, I forget who, posted a link to this article. For the most part it's pretty good. I just find one thing really weird.

Just the first line, really.

A new computer-based technique could eliminate hours of manual adjustment associated with a popular cancer treatment.

Hey man, check out the new cancer treatment I'm getting. It's so hot.

OK, seriously, wtf does BLK600SMPAK10 mean?

2007-01-18T04:57:12Z

This is not the best table ever:

I could not forsee this thing happening to you

2006-12-07T07:10:30Z

It's time again for another edition of "songs I never would have expected to work together, but were totally proven to work through random ordering".

Sabbath - A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning
Stones - Paint It Black
Cure - Three Imaginary Boys

Yeah, I never would have figured it.

This is not 'Nam. This is C. There are rules.

2006-11-29T21:42:13Z

I was going about my day earlier, when spot sent me an IM asking for help with one of my favorite programs. Apparently, it was failing quite spectacularly on sparc, and he was having some trouble making the machine give useful debug data.

After a bit of hacking on it, I found this wonderful nugget:

int label_read(struct device *dev, struct label **result)
{
        char buf[LABEL_SIZE];
        struct labeller *l;
...
        if (!(l = _find_labeller(dev, buf, §or)))
                goto_out;       
...
}
...
static struct labeller *_find_labeller(struct device *dev, char *buf,
                                       uint64_t *label_sector)
{
...
        struct label_header *lh;
...
        uint64_t sector;
        int found = 0;
        char readbuf[LABEL_SCAN_SIZE];

        if (!dev_read(dev, UINT64_C(0), LABEL_SCAN_SIZE, readbuf)) {
                log_debug("%s: Failed to read label area", dev_name(dev));
                goto out;
        }

        /* Scan first few sectors for a valid label */
        for (sector = 0; sector < LABEL_SCAN_SECTORS;
             sector += LABEL_SIZE >> SECTOR_SHIFT) {
                lh = (struct label_header *) (readbuf +
                                              (sector << SECTOR_SHIFT));
...
                list_iterate_items(li, &_labellers) {
                        if (li->l->ops->can_handle(li->l, (char *) lh, sector)) {
...
}

Where li->l->ops->can_handle() winds up being...

static int _pool_read(struct labeller *l, struct device *dev, char *buf,
                 struct label **label)
{
        struct pool_list pl;

        return read_pool_label(&pl, l, dev, buf, label);
}
...
int read_pool_label(struct pool_list *pl, struct labeller *l,
                    struct device *dev, char *buf, struct label **label)
{               
...
        struct pool_disk *pd = &pl->pd;

        pool_label_in(pd, buf);
...
}

And elsewhere we find:

struct pool_disk {
        uint64_t pl_magic;      /* Pool magic number */
        uint64_t pl_pool_id;    /* Unique pool identifier */
        char pl_pool_name[POOL_NAME_SIZE];      /* Name of pool */
...
}
...
#define CPIN_64(x, y) {(x) = xlate64_be((y));}
...
void pool_label_in(struct pool_disk *pl, char *buf)
{
        struct pool_disk *bufpl = (struct pool_disk *) buf;

        CPIN_64(pl->pl_magic, bufpl->pl_magic);
        CPIN_64(pl->pl_pool_id, bufpl->pl_pool_id);
        CPIN_8(pl->pl_pool_name, bufpl->pl_pool_name, POOL_NAME_SIZE);
        CPIN_32(pl->pl_version, bufpl->pl_version);
...
}

Who wants to play "hunt the SIGBUS"?

Just think. Somebody was paid real money to write this. The mind boggles.

My moment of Zen.

2006-11-22T22:02:30Z

So, reading through some code today, I came across this bit:

pvh_dlocn_xl->offset = xlate64(UINT64_C(0));
pvh_dlocn_xl->size = xlate64(UINT64_C(0));

That is all.

The whole Oracle thing...

2006-10-27T04:35:14Z

Ok, so here's what I don't get. I keep seeing this quote from Edward Stevens, Oracle's CTO. He's CTO at a very, very large software company, so he must be a pretty smart guy, right? Here's the quote:

All we add are bug fixes, which are immediately available to Red Hat and the rest of the community.

Dear Mr. Stevens,

Do you not know the difference between the statement that you're making something available to a community, versus saying that you're contributing and being a part of a community? It seems like a pretty fundamental thing to me. I can only assume that you do understand the difference, and, as such, you chose your words carefully.

I admire your display of such courage, which is clearly required to admit so freely that you, and those you represent, don't intend to put forth serious contributions, nor to be a part of the community of which you speak.

That is all.

ich bin ein papierklammerhalter

2006-09-06T14:49:38Z

I was looking for a paperclip a few minutes ago, and couldn't find one.

When I asked my local coworkers, one of them immediately pointed out that somebody from facilities had brought by these little desktop trinkets, which we'd all dismissed as totally useless, but actually did contain paperclips.

We all have paperclips now.

Ich bin ein papierklatterhalter.

Sorry.

the morning after

2006-09-01T05:52:46Z

the morning after
Originally uploaded by atbash.

My friend Paul moved back to London this Friday (well, he flies today, which is Friday). I inherited some book shelves from him, which I picked up Wednesday evening, as the shelves weren't worth shipping overseas. So late Wednesday night, I rummaged around my apartment for all the books which weren't currently shelved (as you all know, this is usually at least a few dozen), and randomly tossed them onto the new shelving in my bedroom.

This is what I saw when I woke up this morning.

OMFG.

2006-08-19T06:36:13Z

This might be the best picture EVAR.

_{p.s. Sammy can't see this icon. At all. Awesome. Goddam colorblind motherfuckers.}

_{_{p.p.s. this image is huge. I hate you all.}}

deviant_ @ 2006-08-10T22:21:00

2006-08-11T02:23:38Z

Well, this was interesting for about a minute.

Got at b3co.com!

fun with suspend and resume

2006-07-29T05:38:12Z

Plenty of times I've suspended my laptop with my headphones on, while listening to music. Of course when I resumed, the music would still be playing. This is obviously not preffered.

So tonight I wrote some code to fix it. It's way more complicated than should be needed. Rhythmbox talks to dbus, but only to the session, not to the system. So the suspend/resume scripts can't talk to it[1]. So, since the obvious 5 line shell script won't work, I had to write a rhythmbox plugin that listens on dbus, and then make the shell script talk to that.

Rhythmbox's python binding method is pretty much backwards from what you'd expect, and it registers itself through an __init__ method call, rather than the obvious way. That's a little weird at first, but using dbus's python bindings are like trying to stab yourself in the foot with a rubber ball. The introspection methods are entirely useless (actually, they don't provide any introspection at all).

So, anyway, here's a tarball. I'll look at packaging it somewhere later.

[1] We should really make some infrastructure to fix this recurring problem...

Why does reality seem to differ from person to person?

2006-07-01T19:04:35Z

I am so there. Trailers are here.

I just couldn't help myself...

2006-05-17T18:43:09Z

So, I just updated our "pykickstart" package to handle configuration of multipath devices -- disks with redundant cabling. Don't ask why. Just as I was about to commit it, the best changelog entry ever sprung to mind:

Leeloo: Leeloo Dallas mul-ti-path.
Korben Dallas: Yeah.
Leeloo: Mul-ti-path.
Korben Dallas: Yeah, multipath, she knows it's a multipath. Leeloo Dallas. This is my wife.
Leeloo: Mul-ti-path.
Korben Dallas: We're newlyweds. Just met. You know how it is. We bumped into each other, sparks happen...
Leeloo: Mul-ti-path.
Korben Dallas: Yes, she knows it's a multipath. Anyway, we're in love.

Sometimes, I kill me.

It's that time again.

2006-05-14T22:01:07Z

Every once in a while, I have to note that the Tropical Fish Song does not have enough representation on the Internet.

To help correct this problem, I have also posted a link on my people page.

Ok, so Verizon has pissed me off before, but...

2006-04-03T05:17:44Z

really, how hard is DST in the US?

My phone currently says that the local time is 1:16 AM, and the time in Boston is 12:16 AM. What, like I'm in some other time zone because I'm North of the river?

Seriously, Boston isn't even near Indiana.