tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-143436742024-03-07T19:34:23.513-08:00carl.russmannCarlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1134754942472275892005-12-16T09:32:00.000-08:002005-12-16T09:44:39.730-08:00X11 over SSH to a Mac<p>Every once in a while I use SSH to connect to a Linux box from my Mac Mini. When running X11 apps over this connection I would experience weird crashes, especially with GTK apps. Some apps would crash randomly, others would crash immediately when the window came up. For GVim, this is a showstopper.</p>
<p>Frustrated by always seeing errors like this:
<br><br>
<i>
The program 'gvim' received an X Window System error.<br>
This probably reflects a bug in the program.<br>
The error was 'BadAtom (invalid Atom parameter)'.<br>
(Details: serial 148 error_code 5 request_code 20 minor_code 0)<br>
(Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;<br>
that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.<br>
To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line<br>
option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful<br>
backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)<br>
</i>
<br><br>
I decided to consult the oracle of Google. Turns out this is a know issue, and has something to do with the default settings for SSH in Tiger. <a href="http://www.macosxhints.com">Mac OSX Hints</a> has an <a href="http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050504114932249">article</a> on the issue.</p>
<p>Summary of the fix: Don't use "ssh -X" to connect to the remote box; use "ssh -Y".</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/macosx" rel="tag">Mac OS X</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/ssh" rel="tag">ssh</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/x11" rel="tag">X11</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/linux" rel="tag">Linux</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1132702338001215822005-11-22T15:25:00.000-08:002005-11-22T15:32:18.016-08:00The New Outsourcing<p><a href="http://www.newtechusa.com/ppi/talent.asp">Primate Programming Inc.</a></p>
<p>Where's <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063442/">Charlton Heston</a> when you need him?</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/monkeys" rel="tag">monkeys</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/outsourcing" rel="tag">outsourcing</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/humor" rel="tag">humor</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1132508458081823622005-11-20T09:30:00.000-08:002005-11-20T09:40:58.096-08:00RSS Feeds for Castanet<p>Last week <a href="http://www.castanet.net">Castanet</a> added <a href="http://www.castanet.net/rss/">RSS feeds</a> to their news site. I really like that they've done this with separate feeds for each news category -- I'm now subscribed to their Kelowna news and Okanagan Valley news via <a href="http://www.bloglines.com">Bloglines</a>. Even their "Dear Cop" section and the always entertaining letters to the editor have feeds.</p>
<p>The only down side? Even more things for a news junkie like myself to read!</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/news" rel="tag">news</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/okanagan" rel="tag">Okanagan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/kelowna" rel="tag">Kelowna</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/rss" rel="tag">RSS</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1132182972219861972005-11-16T15:04:00.000-08:002005-11-16T15:16:12.233-08:00Google Sightseeing: Berlin<p>I totally forgot I submitted a Google Maps link to the <a href="http://googlesightseeing.com/2005/11/16/the-brandenburg-gate/">Brandenburg Gate</a> in Berlin to <a href="http://googlesightseeing.com">Google Sightseeing</a>, so I was pretty surprised to see my name (along with several others) under it when it was posted today. Right now they're running quite a bit of scenery from Europe. This is pretty hard to do since there are no street names to go by. Very cool. Should've included a link to this blog.</p>
<p>I'm still waiting for google to add more high-resolution imagery for the entire Okanagan here in BC...</p>
<p>For now, here's where my uncle lives in Berlin. It's the triangular building in the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=52.428238,13.317940&spn=0.006974,0.007757&t=k&hl=en">middle of the map</a>.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/google" rel="tag">Google</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/maps" rel="tag">maps</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/berlin" rel="tag">Berlin</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1132008445993874482005-11-14T14:46:00.000-08:002005-11-15T09:16:36.143-08:00Alberta's Centennial Quarter<p>
I found one of these in my change today:
</p>
<img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4343/279/1600/albertaquarter.0.jpg">
<p>
More info from the <a href="http://www.albertacentennial.ca/news/viewpost.aspx?id=476">Alberta Centennial Site</a>.
</p>
<p>
Reminded me of a sticker I saw stuck to a cash register many years ago: "Alberta currency accepted at face value". </p>
</p><div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/alberta+centennial" rel="tag">Alberta Centennial</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/alberta" rel="tag">alberta</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/coins" rel="tag">coins</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1131993247898432102005-11-14T10:30:00.000-08:002005-11-14T10:34:07.910-08:00First Frost<p>Bit of frost on the car this morning. This is the first time it's happened this year. No scraping needed though; I slept in late enough that it had melted everywhere except for a bit on the rear window.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/frost" rel="tag">frost</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/weather" rel="tag">weather</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/vancouver" rel="tag">Vancouver</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1131570246020817072005-11-09T12:55:00.000-08:002005-11-09T13:04:06.033-08:00A tale of two webcams<p>Two webcams: one with better resolution, the other with better weather:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.katkam.ca/p.asp?what=currentjpg">Burrard Street Bridge, Vancouver</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.virtualvernon.com/netcam/netcam.jpg">Kalamalka Lake, Vernon</a></li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>Yesterday I watched a beautiful sunset on the Vernon webcam. The view out the office window (and the Burrard webcam) only gave me a gray, dreary afternoon and evening. I think it's time to head back up to the Okanagan.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/vernon+bc" rel="tag">Vernon B.C.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/okanagan" rel="tag">Okanagan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/coldstream" rel="tag">Coldstream</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/vancouver" rel="tag">Vancouver</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/webcam" rel="tag">webcam</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1131039002002386082005-11-03T08:48:00.000-08:002005-11-09T13:04:49.646-08:00Subversion and SSH<p>A while back, I set up a <a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/">Subversion</a> repository on my home Linux server to keep a handle on all of my projects. Since this machine was really also my main desktop (and <a href="http://www.mythtv.org">MythTV</a> box), there were really no issues that couldn't be handled from the commandline.</p>
<p>A while later, I <a href="http://carlrussmann.blogspot.com/2005/09/say-hello-to-my-little-friend.html">expanded</a> my computer collection and wanted to try to get at the SVN repository from there as well. Also, I had accumulated several scripts at home that I wanted *easy* access to from work. Pairing SSH with SVN makes all of this as easy as accessing the SVN repository from the local server.</p>
<p>First order: get SSH working using public key authentication. There are lots of tutorials on the web for this, but the following worked for me:
<ol>
<li>On the server, generate your keys: "ssh-keygen -t dsa -b 1024". See ssh-keygen manpage for details on this command. Basically, this creates a 1024 bit DSA key pair for you. Don't forget to enter a <em>good</em> passphrase for the key!</li>
<li>Make sure that your private key (~/.ssh/id_dsa) and the .ssh directory are only readable by you -- The directory should be "chmod 700" and the file "chmod "600". Many ssh servers will not allow key-based authentication if this is not the case!</li>
<li>Copy the public part of the key (~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub) to each client. Append it to the file "~/.ssh/authorized_keys2"</li>
</ol>
SSH should now be working using the keys. When you ssh from one of the clients to your server you should be prompted for your key passphrase, but NOT your server password. Once you enter it, you should be in.</p>
<p>Now, entering a passphrase every time you want to use SSH sucks, doubly so when using Subversion as you will be prompted for it several times for each transaction. Not fun. To get around this, you can run an ssh-agent locally that will hang onto your decrypted key for you. All you need to do is enter the passphrase *once* using the "ssh-add" command and all logons to the server won't prompt you. This works, but you need to have the agent running, and there should be environment variables set pointing to it. If you start the agent in one xterm and want to use it in another, well, this also gets tricky. Fortunately, <a href="
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/keychain/">Keychain</a> can handle all of this for you. It's a simple shell script that handles the agent for you. All I did was add a line to start it to my .bashrc and another line to source the environment variables it sets:
<pre>
# Start keychain for ssh-agent
/usr/bin/keychain
[[ -f $HOME/.keychain/$HOSTNAME-sh ]] &&
source $HOME/.keychain/$HOSTNAME-sh
</pre>
Now, all I need to do is enter my ssh passphrase once after logging on using ssh-add, and everything works smoothly from there.</p>
<p>On to Subversion! When I initially created my Subversion repositories, I put them on the server at /subversion. With SSH from each client working, accessing this was disappointingly simple. On the client:
<pre>svn co svn+ssh://username@my_svn_server/subversion/project1</pre>
Compare this to what I would do on the local server:
<pre>svn co file:///subversion/project1</pre>
It's a bit more typing, but this is really only needed once when checking out the code. After that, svn commands such as "svn stat" work as they always do.</p>
<p>The only thing to watch out for is if the Subversion repository is going to be shared by several people. Because of how the svn client runs the Subversion server on the remote end, it will be running as the user. This can mess up filesystem permissions in the repository if things aren't set up correctly. There's a whole section on this in the <a href="http://svnbook.red-bean.com/">Subversion book</a>, and this applies to local SVN access just the same as it does to SSH access.</p>
<p>One final thing -- since Mac OS X doesn't come with Subversion preinstalled, I needed to grab some binaries for this. The <a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/project_packages.html">Subversion Page</a> lists both Fink packages and prebuilt binaries (from <a href="http://metissian.com/projects/macosx/subversion/">http://metissian.com/projects/macosx/subversion/</a>. Being lazy, I grabbed the prebuilt binaries and haven't had a problem with them.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/subversion" rel="tag">subversion</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/svn" rel="tag">svn</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/ssh" rel="tag">ssh</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/mac" rel="tag">mac</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/osx" rel="tag">osx</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1130960679605772632005-11-02T11:32:00.000-08:002005-11-02T11:44:39.623-08:00Batteries in smoke alarms<p>I don't really buy the argument that batteries in smoke alarms should be changed at the same time every year so they remain effective. Every battery operated detector I've come across will start to complain as soon as it's batteries even begin to run low. One beep every 30 seconds, or something like that. In that state, they should have more than enough power to warn you if something was actually up.</p>
<p>But avoiding this low-battery warning is more than enough reason for me to change the batteries. Last night, 2AM. Something went *BEEP*. I'm a pretty light sleeper, so I'm guessing the very first one woke me up. I decided to ignore it, hoping it was part of a dream. *BEEP*. And again, *BEEP*, half a minute later. After about two minutes of denial and hoping that it would go away on its own, I dragged myself out of bed nad pulled down the smoke detector.</p>
<p>Instead of just ripping out the batteries and leaving it for the morning, my neurotic nature got the better of me. Batteries replaced (3 AA batteries? What a stupid design!), detector back on the ceiling, and back to bed. And KK? She slept through the whole damn thing. I think if a smoke detector went off for real, she'd just take a swing at the alarm clock, roll over, and continue sleeping. Must be nice.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/smoke+detector" rel="tag">smoke detector</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/batteries" rel="tag">batteries</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/sleep" rel="tag">sleep</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1130368477307246682005-10-26T15:57:00.000-07:002005-10-26T16:14:37.313-07:00Lottery or Death?<p>An interesting comment was made by a colleague over lunch today: he claimed that you're statistically more likely to die within 15 minutes of buying a lottery ticket than actually winning the 6/49 jackpot. Sounds surprising at first, but the numbers do work out:</p>
<p>In Canada, the current yearly death rate is <a href="http://www.indexmundi.com/canada/death_rate.html">7.73 deaths per 1000 population</a>. While age, health, and lots of other factors influence that, you could still argue that the "average" Canadian has a 0.00773 chance of dying in the next year. That works out to a 2.118e-05 chance over the next day and a 2.206e-07 chance in the next 15 minutes. Or about a 1 in 4,500,000 chance.</p>
<p>Now the chances of winning the lottery? About <a href="http://www.stat.ualberta.ca/people/schmu/preprints/article/Article.htm">one in 14 million</a></p>.
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/statistics" rel="tag">statistics</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/lottery" rel="tag">lottery</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/649" rel="tag">649</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1128011376285113582005-09-29T09:27:00.000-07:002005-09-29T09:29:36.293-07:00Working with CSS: Dave Shea<p>Last night I attended <a href="http://www.mezzoblue.com">Dave Shea</a>'s talk <a href="http://mezzoblue.com/presentations/2005/vanxml/">Working with CSS</a>. The talk was put on by the <a href="http://www.vanxml.org">Vancouver XML Developers Association</a>, and hosted at <a href="http://www.activestate.com">ActiveState</a>.</p>
<p>I thought Dave provided a very good overview of how CSS can be used to separate the design from the content of a site. Using simple examples (and some more complex ones from his <a href="http://www.csszengarden.com">CSS Zen Garden</a> site, he really demonstrated the power of CSS to an audience of very mixed technical backgrounds. After showing us how CSS operates in ideal terms, he spent much of the latter half of his presentation talking about the realities -- browser bugs and incompatibilities. While some of the questions from the audience were possibly a bit too techincal and esoteric for the evening, Dave's talk stayed on a level that I felt was accessible and interesting to the entire group.</p>
<p>Even though I'm the complete opposite of a web designer -- I feel much more at home hacking c/c++ server code than doing HTML -- I came away from this talk having learned something and feeling inspired. If this feeling lasts, I might eventually get around to turning this blog into something more presentable!</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/css" rel="tag">css</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/vanxml" rel="tag">vanxml</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/web" rel="tag">web</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/html" rel="tag">html</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/activestate" rel="tag">activestate</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1127923384504782582005-09-28T08:36:00.000-07:002005-09-28T09:03:04.516-07:00Spaghetti Arms<p>
My arms feel like cooked spaghetti. My legs are tired and my core muscles feel dazed and confused. Last night was my first training session with Carmen from <a href="http://www.humanmotion.ca">Human Motion</a>. Kerry has been doing these sessions for quite some time and finally convinced me to give it a try. So, I'm signed up for a total of eight of these -- every Tuesday night.
</p>
<p>
The stuff we did sounds pretty simple if you don't think hard about it: we stood on one leg, twisted around a bit, did some <i>partial</i> push-ups, and other similar things. What makes this so hard is that we did them with our core muscles, holding positions for some duration and going through motions slowly. A push-up isn't a particularly difficult thing to do "normally". Half a push-up (the down phase only) is pretty tiring if you do it extremely slow, making sure that your core is engaged the whole way down.
</p>
<p>
I may end up feeling sore by tonight, but I'm already looking forward to going next week.
</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/core" rel="tag">core</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/fitness" rel="tag">fitness</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/workout" rel="tag">workout</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/spaghetti" rel="tag">spaghetti</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1127407316637236732005-09-22T09:14:00.000-07:002005-09-22T09:41:56.646-07:00The Coming Banana Apocalypse<p>Bananas are currently the number one fruit eaten in North America. That may change in the very near future.</p>
<p>In the last few years, a strain of fungus affecting bananas has started to spread. Many plantations in parts of South-East Asia have already been wiped out, and it is only a matter of time before it spreads to the South American plantations where we get virtually all our bananas from.</p>
<p>The disease is spreading this fast because of the lack of genetic diversity in commercial banana plants. The banans we enjoy are a seedless fruit and new plants are created from cuttings and other "cloning" techniques. Every single banana plant is essentially genetically identical, and thus vulnerable to this disease. There is no genetic diversity which would allow some plants to have higher levels of resistance to it.</p>
<p>As Popular Science <a href="http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/5a4d4c3ee4d05010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html">reports</a>, banana growers and geneticists are currently scrambling to develop new varieties of banana that are resistant to this disease and are commercially viable.</p>
<p>What I find interesting is how well this situation enforces the point of how detrimental a monoculture can be for agriculture. Bananas are certainly not the only crop being farmed with a very small genetic diversity. The number of different varieties of cattle, chickens, pigs, grains, and fruit has steadily dropped over the last hundred years. Many of the varieties that were common a century ago are now all but extinct, confined to niche markets if we're lucky. It is probable that a disease could evolve in the near future that all but wipes out another type of crop. This time it may not be a fruit we consider a luxury, but could very well be a staple food for much of the world such as rice or wheat.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/food" rel="tag">food</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/banana" rel="tag">banana</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/diversity" rel="tag">diversity</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/genetics" rel="tag">genetics</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/agriculture" rel="tag">agriculture</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/farming" rel="tag">farming</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1127161589447374672005-09-19T13:19:00.000-07:002005-09-19T14:00:39.390-07:00Say hello to my little friend...<p>No, not this one:<br>
<a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0086250/">
<img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4343/279/320/scarface.jpg">
</a>
</p>
<p>This one:<br>
<a href="http://www.apple.com/ca/macmini/">
<img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4343/279/320/macmini.jpg">
</a>
</p>
<p>This weekend, I switched. This is the first time I've seriously used a Mac in well over ten years, and in a way it feels like I've come home after a long absence. I already feel more comfortable using the Mini than I do using a Windows machine.</p>
<p>Coming from a string of Linux boxes, this machine does all that they did and more: Full Unix commandline shell? Check! Unix dev tools (Vi!) and scripting languages? Check! X11? Check! The list of Unix happiness goes on and on. But what really gets me is that, as everyone says, "It just works". Scanner, digital camera, wireless network settings, sound sharing between apps -- everything worked without any issues. I didn't have to tweak any kernel modules, compile extra apps or hack config files by hand to get everything up and running.</p>
<p>Having used <a href="http://www.windowmaker.org">WindowMaker</a> as my Linux desktop for many years, the OS X UI feels surprisingly familiar. The dock, the mini-windows and app-icons are all represented in almost the exact same way. You can really feel the NeXT history there. Even the "new" finder (which some people hate) can be run in a way that looks a lot like the NeXT file manager (or the GNUStep GWorkspace.app for that matter).</p>
<p>What has really made my day though is how easy it is to install and uninstall applications. With a few exceptions, you just drag the whole thing into (and out of) the Applications folder. That's it. Nothing like Windows where you run an installer that defecates files and registry entries all over your system. Or Linux where you spend a good part of a day looking for a package of the app you want, trying to resolve 15 dependency packages for it, and then finally grabbing source and compiling it because for some reason the only package you could find doesn't like your version of libfoobar.so.</p>
<p>The hardware is pretty spectacular too. It's small, quiet, and feels like it's been put together much better than any PC hardware I've ever seen. The old "beige-box" PCs I have sitting around look like massive, ugly dinosaurs beside the mini.</p>
<p>The verdict: I'm keeping it!</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/mac+mini" rel="tag">Mac Mini</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/mac" rel="tag">Mac</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/osx" rel="tag">OSX</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/linux" rel="tag">Linux</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Unix" rel="tag">Unix</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/windowmaker" rel="tag">windowmaker</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/NeXT" rel="tag">NeXT</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1126815865332309262005-09-15T13:21:00.000-07:002005-09-15T13:24:25.350-07:00Where There's Smoke...<p>We're finally getting a bit of a break from the smoke from the <a href="http://www.burnsbog.org/">Burns Bog</a> <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/09/14/bc_bog_fire_20050914.html">fire</a> here in Vancouver. All last week we've had orange sunsets and occasionally thicker smoke blanketed the area, giving everything an eerie yellow glow in the middle of the day. Waking up in the mornings to the smell of smoke permeating through the closed windows isn't particularly pleasant either.</p>
<p>Biking to work has been a bit of a challenge too. Yesterday I found myself fighting the urge to cough while going up the final hill on the way home. Tonight should be much better, especially if some of the predicted rain showers materialize.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/burns+bog" rel="tag">Burns Bog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/fire" rel="tag">fire</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/vancouver" rel="tag">vancouver</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/cycling" rel="tag">cycling</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1126736862993850412005-09-14T15:24:00.000-07:002005-09-14T15:27:43.000-07:00Computers in the Livingroom<p>I've decided I hate computers in livingrooms. Beige boxes and monitors on desks just don't belong. Up until last weekend, a small "office" had been growing in the corner of our livingroom. I finally got around to moving the ugly little Ikea desk with the awkwardly large CRT monitor on top of it into into the second bedroom, which is now my new office. In their place is a small end table with a lamp and an futon chair. Much better looking, even though I want to replace both the lamp and the chair with better furniture.</p>
<p>
For better or worse, there still aren't any less computers in the livingroom. My Linux desktop machine has been hidden underneath the TV to live as a MythTV PVR. I've also moved my 486 firewall/webserver/mailserver behind the couch, although that can easily be moved into the new office as well. The way the computers are positioned, fan noise isn't terribly loud unless MythTV is recording something. The 20 year old fridge in the kitchen masks any computer anywhere in the apartment when it's running, which seems to be most of the time... I'm still thinking of building a cheap, silent system to use as a dedicated MythTV frontend, and moving the backend server out of there.</p>
<p>
The geekiest fun I had was setting up a workstation in the new office though. A few years back I installed RedHat 7.2 on Kerry's old P2 machine. A bit of hacking has cut bootup times in half (with more to come!) and turned it into a very nice X terminal that I can use to log on to the machine in the livingroom using XDMCP. That should give me enough tweaking to do until I go and buy the Mac Mini I've been drooling over.
</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/mythtv" rel="tag">mythtv</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/home+office" rel="tag">home office</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/xdmcp" rel="tag">xdmcp</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/linux" rel="tag">linux</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/silence" rel="tag">silence</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1124319175376555242005-08-17T15:44:00.000-07:002005-08-17T16:09:09.980-07:00Short, fat and slow...<p>
I don't particularly see myself as any one of these things, but that sure is how I felt yesterday while biking home when a bunch of roadies on the way to the <a href="http://www.escapevelocity.bc.ca/wtnc.html">Tuesday night races</a> out at UBC passed me.</p>
<p>One guy must have been 6'4"; at least that's how tall he looked. I could probably have kept up with them for a bit, but their "casual pace" would have been a pretty hard workout for me.</p>
<p>Last I saw, they were calmly cruising up the top of the hill to UBC, about to blow by a frightened mountain biker that was scurrying up infront of them.</p>
<div class="tags">
Tags:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/cycling" rel="tag">cycling</a>
<li><a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/commuting" rel="tag">commuting</a>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1122574697026115662005-07-28T11:02:00.000-07:002005-07-28T11:18:17.030-07:00Neighbours via GeoURL<p>Want to see who's running a website near me? Just click the <a href="http://geourl.org/near?p=http://carlrussmann.blogspot.com" title="check out my neighbors in meatspace">
<img src="http://i.geourl.org/geourl.png" alt="GeoURL" border="0" width="52" height="14" /></a> button I've added to the side bar.</p>
<p>Setting this up is very easy; just follow the directions at the <a href="http://geourl.org/add.html">GeoURL</a> site. All you need to know is your position (latitude and longitude in decimal degrees), which is dead easy to find out using <a href="http://maps.google.com">Google Maps</a>. Just zoom the map in all the way and center it on your location. Then just click "link to this page" and read the position out of the URL; it's the "ll" part.</p>
<p>For BlogSpot, just put the two tags from GeoURL into your header, republish the blog, and then <a href="http://geourl.org/ping/">ping</a> GeoURL. Finally, add the generated HTML into your template to get a button. Don't forget to republish again so you can see it. That's it!</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/geourl" rel="tag">GeoURL</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/geo" rel="tag">geo</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/neighbours" rel="tag">neighbours</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/meatspace" rel="tag">meatspace</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1122567717305841312005-07-28T08:58:00.000-07:002005-07-28T09:46:26.023-07:00Echinacea useless for cold symptoms<p>A recent <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/07/27/echinacea-050727.html">study</a> has shown that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinacea">echinacea</a> is no better than a placebo for helping against the common cold. While I think there are many important medicines waiting to be discovered from yet unknown natural sources -- even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin">Aspirin</a> was originally derived from an extract of willow bark -- I don't think echinacea deserved the attention it previously received for being a "cure for the cold".</p>
<p>Just as with many other common ailments, people don't want to admit that the best way to help prevent them is by changing their lifestyles. Instead, they want a magic pill that cures all their problems and absolves them of any responsiblity to take care of their bodies. Several years ago, I thought much like this. I rarely exercised, I ate poorly, and essentially abused my body. As a result I was overweight, I got sick much more frequently (the dreaded cold!), and generally felt pretty down. I'm certainly not a poster-child for living a perfect life now (I still enjoy my beer!), but I've made some significant changes in my lifestyle, including diet and excercise. And while it did involve some work on my part, it didn't take a magic pill to cure me.</p>
<p>Of course, the various supplement companies are well aware of our desire for an effortless solution to our problems -- and the fact that we're willing to pay top dollar for something that *might* work. With a bit of clever marketing, they turned anecdotal evidence and a few small scientific studies into a huge cash cow.</p>
<p>But now that we have some statistically relevant scientific evidence that echinacea really is just a pricy placebo, what will happen? Will people see that they've been duped and stop buying it? Will the supplement companies stop shipping echinacea products (or maybe relabel them to say something like "Echinacea added to improve texture and flavouring")? Or will everyone simply ignore scientific evidence that happens to go against their dreams and beliefs and carry on as if this were never published? Judging by how quickly scientific evidence was accepted in other controversial subjects such as evolution, the link between smoking and cancer, and the link between burning of hydrocarbons and global warming, I think it's quite obvious how this one will play out.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/echinacea" rel="tag">echinacea</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/cold" rel="tag">cold</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/placebo" rel="tag">placebo</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/alternative+medicine" rel="tag">alternative medicine</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/supplements" rel="tag">supplements</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/health" rel="tag">health</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/herbal+remedy" rel="tag">herbal remedy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/herbal+medicine" rel="tag">herbal medicine</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/aspirin" rel="tag">aspirin</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1121988647160452902005-07-21T16:26:00.000-07:002005-07-26T11:17:05.320-07:00Wurstteppich<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4343/279/1600/mortadella.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4343/279/200/mortadella.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<p>Rugs that look like sausage slices: <a href="http://wurstteppich.de">Wurstteppich.de</a>. Only in Germany...</p>
<p>The scary part is that I'm getting hungry looking at them!</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/sausage" rel="tag">sausage</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/wurstteppich" rel="tag">wurstteppich</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/germany" rel="tag">germany</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1121984911698773522005-07-21T15:16:00.000-07:002005-07-27T09:47:01.396-07:00Tour de Gastown<p>Last night we went to Gastown to check out the legendary <a href="http://www.tourdegastown.com/news/">Tour de Gastown</a>. Lance Armstrong won this race (well, the men's race!) years ago when he was still racing with Team <strike>Motorola</strike> Subaru Montgomery.</p>
<p>Some pictures:
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4343/279/1600/gastown2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4343/279/400/gastown2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>
</p> <div style="text-align: center;">An attempt at a break
</div><br> <p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4343/279/1600/gastown1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4343/279/400/gastown1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>
</p> <div style="text-align: center;">A <a href="http://www.dizzychicks.com/">Dizzy Chick</a> moving fast!
</div>
<p>[Updated 2005.07.27 -- Thanks Gord! :) ]</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/cycling" rel="tag">cycling</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/road+racing" rel="tag">road racing</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/tour+de+gastown" rel="tag">tour de gastown</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/dizzy+chicks" rel="tag">dizzy chicks</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/gastown" rel="tag">gastown</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/vancouver" rel="tag">vancouver</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1121876261510637962005-07-20T08:43:00.000-07:002005-07-21T15:14:18.560-07:00Rant: Why I don't go to the movie theatres<p><a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/tim/">Tim O'Reilly</a> just <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/07/ads_the_reason.html">posted a link</a> to an interesting <a href="http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2005/07/declining_movie.html">article</a> on the <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com">O'Reilly Radar blog</a>.
According to the article, movie theatre revenues are hurting. People are becoming much more inclined to rent movies and watch them at home than they are to go to a theatre. High ticket prices and the availability of high quality home-theatres for reasonable prices have contributed to this, but another less obvious factor is the glut of advertising that comes with going to a movie theatre.</p>
<p>I tend to agree with this sentiment. Over the last five years I've seen an average of one film in the theatre each year, and each one has left me feeling ripped off.</p>
<p>When arriving at a theatre, the first reminder of where I am is always the sticker shock. $12 for admission, $5 for popcorn, $5 for a drink, and let's not even get started about the price of parking downtown. For that kind of change, two people could go out for dinner and still have money left over to rent a DVD. But what really gets to me is the endless stream of ads.</p>
<p>In the theatre, the advertisements have already started before anyone is in their seats. While people are filing in, there is usually some sort of a slide show advertising soft drinks with the occasional slide of uninteresting trivia on a second-rate actor. These ads are not so bad as they can be ignored easily enough; the only music playing is there as background, and the house lights are still on. While waiting through these you can still talk to your friends or read a magazine while waiting for them to return with their $5 popcorn.</p>
<p>Once everyone has found their seats and is a fully captive audience (usually well past the actual start time for the film), the lights dim and everyone goes silent, anticipating the start of <span style="font-style:italic;">something</span>. Instead of a film though, you first have to sit through a good ten minutes of ads. These ads are nothing special; they're the same ads you see everyday on television, only here presented on a big screen with big sound -- is this the true movie theatre experience? Since it is now dark it is virtually impossible to look away from the commercials. You are forced to sit and become immersed in them.</p>
<p>Whoever thought of playing ads before a film like this is one of the most brilliant advertising geniuses of all time, and should be shot. The audience is completely captive; while the commercials are playing it is impossible to look away or even to hold a discussion with another person due to their size and volume. Unlike television where you can mute the sound, change the channel (usually to find more ads), or leave the room for a bit, there is nothing that can be done to avoid these ads. Good luck getting up and waiting in the lobby for the ads to end; you'll never find your seat in the dark in time for the film to start.</p>
<p>Now, I could at least accept these ads if they were presented to me in exchange for something else. Commercials on broadcast television and radio pay for the programming. Newspaper advertisements pay for most of the paper. I think it's reasonable that they're present to help cover costs and allow the media to make a profit, as annoying as they are. Commercials in movie theatres don't seem to follow along these lines though. As the number of ads has increased over the past years, I certainly haven't seen the ticket price decrease. In fact, quite the opposite of that has happened.</p>
<p>All of this leaves me feeling like I've been taken advantage of when I go to a movie. I've paid my money, and once I'm completely trapped I'm forced to watch advertisements instead of just the film that I've already paid a significant amount of money to see. I almost have visions of some greasy advertising executive sitting up in the projection booth, laughing how they've trapped the suckers sitting below and how much "mindshare" they've aquired by doing this.</p>
<p>Fortunately there is a very easy solution to avoiding all of this advertising: Simply put, it is avoiding going to movie theatres. With the high price of movie tickets and the questionable quality of most film shown, the incentive to do this is even higher. Personally, I'm much happier watching a film that's a few months old at home. Even without a state-of-the-art home theatre, I'm much happier sitting on my blue couch, having a beer and enjoying the show on my own terms. And judging by the article, I'm not the only one.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/rants" rel="tag">rants</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/movie" rel="tag">movie</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/film" rel="tag">film</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/movie+theatre" rel="tag">movie theatre</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/advertising" rel="tag">advertising</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/mindshare" rel="tag">mindshare</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/television" rel="tag">television</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1121802621645641542005-07-19T12:40:00.000-07:002005-07-19T12:50:21.650-07:00Pass the leftovers...<p>Or better yet, pass <span style="font-style:italic;">on</span> the leftovers if they've been in the fridge too long!</p>
<p>The last time I ended up with some sort of food poisoning was about a year ago. That was caused by some bad sushi and was much worse. (As an interesing aside, bad sushi is usually caused by bacteria growing in improperly stored rice, not on the fish).</p>
<p>This time, I have nobody to blame other than myself. Pretty much all of the food I've eaten over the last days has been food I've personally bought and cooked. Maybe the ham that I put on yesterday's sandwich was a bit past it's prime (when did I buy that anyways?). Or maybe it was the soup I cooked a few days ago, or the rice I had with it. In any case, this morning rates pretty low on the scale of enjoyable experiences. I'm feeling weak but better now though.</p>
<p>Agenda for the remainder of the day: <br>
1. Clean out the fridge!<br>
2. Buy fresh food.<br>
</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/leftovers" rel="tag">leftovers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/food+poisoning" rel="tag">food poisoning</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/sick" rel="tag">sick</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1121716576102204072005-07-18T12:46:00.000-07:002005-07-18T14:07:20.823-07:00Latest Obsession: Wikipedia<p>Last night it happened again. After watching the latest stage of the <a href="http://www.letour.fr">Tour de France</a>, I had a few questions that needed answering about some of the riders. I decided to pull up <a href="http://www.wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> for some quick answers.</p>
<p>My adventure started with the bio for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hincapie">George Hincapie</a>, who won that stage. Surprisingly, the article had already been updated listing this win. From there, on to more cycling links. Within a few more minutes I had already forgotten what else I wanted to look up but I'm sure it had something to do with Italy, judging by the tabs open in my <a href="http://www.getfirefox.com">browser</a>. Not a far stretch when you consider all of the Italian cyclists and races.</p>
<p>Another half hour passes. I realize I'm reading an article on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_pylon">Electrical Pylons</a>, and find myself wondering what kind of a geek would write such an article and even more so, what kind of a geek would sit and read something like this unprovoked.</p>
<p>At least I can pretend I learned something. Maybe I'll introduce my dad to Wikipedia the next time I'm home.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/wikipedia" rel="tag">wikipedia</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/wiki" rel="tag">wiki</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/encyclopedia" rel="tag">encyclopedia</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14343674.post-1121544906589158322005-07-16T12:54:00.000-07:002005-07-19T21:59:29.366-07:00Technorati Tags for Blogger<p>The biggest downside to hosting this blog on <a href="http://www.blogger.com">Blogger</a> is that there is no direct support for <a href="http://www.technorati.com">Technorati</a> tags or even a category system for posts that could easily be mapped to Technorati. Links for tags can easily be inserted into a post though. As long as the link has an attribute <em>rel="tag"</em>, the last part of the link will be used as the tag name for that post. For example, the following link will add the tag "chickens":</p>
<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/chickens" rel="tag" >chickens</a><br>
<br>
<p>Lots more details on how to do this and work with Technorati tags in general is on the <a href="
http://consumingexperience.blogspot.com/2005/02/technorati-tags-introduction.html">A Consuming Experience</a> blog.</p>
<p>Following along these lines, here's what I've done to make this as easy as possible. First, I created a template for blog postings that adds a div for tags at the bottom, along with a default tag link. I've also disabled the "Convert Line Breaks" setting for blog postings so that the template doesn't all have to be on one line. Here's what this looks like:</p>
<div class="tags"><br>
<ul><br>
<li>Tags:</li><br>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/TAG_NAME" rel="tag">TAG_NAME</a></li><br>
</ul><br>
</div><br>
<br>
<p>Next I added styles for the tags class to the CSS for my blog. Basically I just changed the list style to be inline with no style for the list items, and added a light border. I'll probably update this to make it look "better" when I have a slow day.</p>
<p>So, when posting a blog, all I'll have to do now is type my content, fill in some more tags at the bottom, and publish. The only way this will get easier is if Blogger adds native support.</p>
<div class="tags">
<ul>
<li>Tags:</li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/technorati" rel="tag">technorati</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/tags" rel="tag">tags</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/blogger" rel="tag">blogger</a></li>
<li><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/hack" rel="tag">hack</a></li>
</ul>
</div>Carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09341808493143425177noreply@blogger.com1