Not that anyone would care, but if you roll your own software from source (like I do, and so should you, at least, on this box) and are compiling Firefox, don't include the Pango dependencies. It helps. A lot.
deskmerc: February 2008 Archives
Making your own Firefox
There's...SOMETHING ON THE WING
One of my loyal minions was discoursing on his political leanings during a lull in the workday. He stated:
I promised I would blog it.
I can't vote for Hillary. She reminds me too much of that thing tearing up the airplane that the guy can see but nobody else can, you know, on the wing.
I promised I would blog it.
Headshot
Congratulations to the crew of the USS Lake Erie on a successful orbital intercept. Pics plz.
My eclipse is eclipsed
There is a lunar eclipse going on right now and I cannot see it myself with all the clouds and rain. I am not happy with this. NOT HAPPY.
I just came in from outside to look at the uniform gray of my night sky. I cannot see a moon. Sigh.
I just came in from outside to look at the uniform gray of my night sky. I cannot see a moon. Sigh.
Electorials
Ok, time for late night pondering the seriousnesses of our time. Evidently we've come to the period we must go through to elect a new president, and as much as I've tried to avoid it, it presses into my little world and makes itself known.
So we have the following:
Hillary Clinton: To paraphrase Reagan, this would be like buying back the old lemon you traded in at the car dealership 8 years ago. It seems to me she's willing to say anything she can to get what she wants, which is control of the party apparatus in the form of the presidential bully pulpit.
Barack Obama: The fuzzy candidate. Just what does he stand for, really? Hope for change? A change of hope? Changing the face of hope? Hopeful in the face of change? All I know is, I have a flag lapel pin on my backpack, along with Denmark. And the regimental crest of 1/37 Armor.
John McCain: Keating Five McCain? Yeah, that one. I feel...ambivalent. He's pushed through some astonishing WTF legislation in his time, and being Texan, has some folks on his personal staff that rankle my personal ire.
Mike Huckabee: Eh?
Ron Paul: HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA! I look forward to his return to private life when ousted by NEOCON ENABLERS FROM THE FIFTH DIMENSION.
Don't forget Cynthia "The Mouth" "J00z kicked me out of office" McKinney is on the slate for the Green Party, so don't forget to dimple the chad in her direction. Snork.
So we have the following:
Hillary Clinton: To paraphrase Reagan, this would be like buying back the old lemon you traded in at the car dealership 8 years ago. It seems to me she's willing to say anything she can to get what she wants, which is control of the party apparatus in the form of the presidential bully pulpit.
Barack Obama: The fuzzy candidate. Just what does he stand for, really? Hope for change? A change of hope? Changing the face of hope? Hopeful in the face of change? All I know is, I have a flag lapel pin on my backpack, along with Denmark. And the regimental crest of 1/37 Armor.
John McCain: Keating Five McCain? Yeah, that one. I feel...ambivalent. He's pushed through some astonishing WTF legislation in his time, and being Texan, has some folks on his personal staff that rankle my personal ire.
Mike Huckabee: Eh?
Ron Paul: HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA! I look forward to his return to private life when ousted by NEOCON ENABLERS FROM THE FIFTH DIMENSION.
Don't forget Cynthia "The Mouth" "J00z kicked me out of office" McKinney is on the slate for the Green Party, so don't forget to dimple the chad in her direction. Snork.
Previous test render
I was going though some old stuff, archiving crap that had been unaccessed for years, and came across this.
This is one of my favorite test renders. The textures all came out nearly perfect, along with the glass reflections and refractions. I don't even mind that the wood texture looks a little of, too glossy, but so what.
Cartoons!
Strange dreams
Cold medicine and antihistamines do something to me in my sleep. Not sure what it is, but Benedryl can really kick off intense REM states, good enough for Technicolor.
The other day (I sleep during the day) I found myself in something that looked like an Apollo command module. Nobody else was present, but there were stars outside and I could hear the crackle of comms with Mission Control telling me I had to give my oxygen tanks a stir. It just so happens I know which switch that is, so I flipped it and immediately regretted doing so, not because anything exploded, but something behind the panels began leaking and water began spraying out of some PVC tubing.
"This can't be good," I thought, because I knew perfectly well that if my panels short out, I can't control the spacecraft. I open the panels and try to plug the leaking, but its coming out of holes in the pipes, dropping down to the floor and starting to puddle up...
...and that's when I realized that the water wasn't forming globular shapes, its making a puddle on the floor. I'm not in orbit, I'M DREAMING! And I wake up. Plus, I have to pee.
The other day (I sleep during the day) I found myself in something that looked like an Apollo command module. Nobody else was present, but there were stars outside and I could hear the crackle of comms with Mission Control telling me I had to give my oxygen tanks a stir. It just so happens I know which switch that is, so I flipped it and immediately regretted doing so, not because anything exploded, but something behind the panels began leaking and water began spraying out of some PVC tubing.
"This can't be good," I thought, because I knew perfectly well that if my panels short out, I can't control the spacecraft. I open the panels and try to plug the leaking, but its coming out of holes in the pipes, dropping down to the floor and starting to puddle up...
...and that's when I realized that the water wasn't forming globular shapes, its making a puddle on the floor. I'm not in orbit, I'M DREAMING! And I wake up. Plus, I have to pee.
I mean ill
I realize that "hammered" can have multiple connotations. I apologize. I meant "the flu bug bit me on the ass".
See, I have two half sisters, my mom and step mom, and who knows who else in my family reading this. I can just see one of them getting shocked over the thought that I might be inebriated, soused, drunk.
I retract my earlier statement and wish to revise and extend with "sick, plain sick". I didn't go on a bender and throw up for three days. HONEST.
See, I have two half sisters, my mom and step mom, and who knows who else in my family reading this. I can just see one of them getting shocked over the thought that I might be inebriated, soused, drunk.
I retract my earlier statement and wish to revise and extend with "sick, plain sick". I didn't go on a bender and throw up for three days. HONEST.
Overrun by microbes
Man, I got hammered over the weekend and didn't even get to enjoy it. Not yet fully recovered, either. I got off work and was feeling fine Sunday morning, trotted down to the local Fiesta because they are the only local store that has proper pico de gallo (so I can put it on my omelets) and dropped right off to sleep on arrival at home base. Later that evening, NotDeskmerc graced me with her presence and we watched an episode of Planet Earf in HD, followed by a laughable Histronic Channel "Life After People", where humans mysteriously vanished in a puff of rhetoric, and cats evolved into the flying squirrel niche, becoming inheritors of the decaying cities.
Mental note: in case all human society vanishes but myself, immediately flee to Hoover Dam, and learn how to keep mollusks out of the cooling pipes.
After she left, I puttered around a bit and did some more laundry, then started feeling...off. Took a nap, got up, found the world had become a very fuzzy place. The fuzzy was so extreme that I collapsed right back down again. I don't remember much of anything until Tuesday afternoon, where I groggily called my boss and said there was no way I was coming in, and notified my relief of said not-cominginess, and collapsed once more.
Wednesday was pretty much the same, except that I actually went to work, which I regretted. I went to work again the next night and it isn't so bad, but still, nothing like a virus to take the edge off your endurance.
Seems like I'm not the only one either. WIDESPREAD FLU!
Mental note: in case all human society vanishes but myself, immediately flee to Hoover Dam, and learn how to keep mollusks out of the cooling pipes.
After she left, I puttered around a bit and did some more laundry, then started feeling...off. Took a nap, got up, found the world had become a very fuzzy place. The fuzzy was so extreme that I collapsed right back down again. I don't remember much of anything until Tuesday afternoon, where I groggily called my boss and said there was no way I was coming in, and notified my relief of said not-cominginess, and collapsed once more.
Wednesday was pretty much the same, except that I actually went to work, which I regretted. I went to work again the next night and it isn't so bad, but still, nothing like a virus to take the edge off your endurance.
Seems like I'm not the only one either. WIDESPREAD FLU!
Vendings
Since I work nights and don't always feel the urge to bring a sack lunch, and everything downtown is closed for miles around, I will raid the company supported vending machines for sustenance.
We have several machines that deliver product at somewhat discounted prices. Cans of soda are a quarter, half liter bottles are 50 cents. (Did I just say liter?) The usual bags of chips and candy bars are also marked down. Along with all that, we have a refrigerated vending machine that serves ice cream and frozen microwavable foods.
It is the latter machine that draws my ire. I'm not complaining about the nature of the food, after all you get what you pay for when it comes to vended faire. There are some items I really like, such as the bricklike double fudge icecream bar, which no longer exists in the machine for some inexplicable reason.
It would seem to me that the world's supply of double fudge icecream bars is not threatened. I don't think the supply is contaminated with lead or insect pesticides, this is a domestic product and safe for human consumption. The fudge refineries haven't exploded, nor has the recent cold weather affected the fudge trees, so why this high demand item has vanished baffles me. In the place of double fudge icecream sits a long line of pink packaged confection that nobody dares purchase. It looks frightening, a row of captured Strawberry Shortcake clones wrapped in pink and white death shrouds, lurking in the top left corner, doomed to exist in this frozen purgatory at $1.25 each.
The price is too high for experimentation. Other items, similar to double fudge, lack the impact of said doubleness. The single fudge is not as sturdy or solid. When a double fudge falls from the spiral arms of the machine, there is a satisfying thunk. The unitary fudge is a halfhearted slap, lacking the density of it's more palatable cousin. A poor substitute, but if I want any fudge ice cream at all, this is what I must obtain. And I fear that when the supply of standard strength fudge is depleted, then I will have to scour the remains of quarter fudge and microfudge icecreams, and soon it will be homeopathic fudge, otherwise known as vanilla.
I fear we may have reached Peak Fudge. I was promised that new sources of fudge would be located and this would replace the lost supply, but it has been five days and nothing has happened. Our government has not seen fit, nor has had the foresight to legislate a National Fudge Stockpile for these sorts of emergencies. I blame George Bush.
We have several machines that deliver product at somewhat discounted prices. Cans of soda are a quarter, half liter bottles are 50 cents. (Did I just say liter?) The usual bags of chips and candy bars are also marked down. Along with all that, we have a refrigerated vending machine that serves ice cream and frozen microwavable foods.
It is the latter machine that draws my ire. I'm not complaining about the nature of the food, after all you get what you pay for when it comes to vended faire. There are some items I really like, such as the bricklike double fudge icecream bar, which no longer exists in the machine for some inexplicable reason.
It would seem to me that the world's supply of double fudge icecream bars is not threatened. I don't think the supply is contaminated with lead or insect pesticides, this is a domestic product and safe for human consumption. The fudge refineries haven't exploded, nor has the recent cold weather affected the fudge trees, so why this high demand item has vanished baffles me. In the place of double fudge icecream sits a long line of pink packaged confection that nobody dares purchase. It looks frightening, a row of captured Strawberry Shortcake clones wrapped in pink and white death shrouds, lurking in the top left corner, doomed to exist in this frozen purgatory at $1.25 each.
The price is too high for experimentation. Other items, similar to double fudge, lack the impact of said doubleness. The single fudge is not as sturdy or solid. When a double fudge falls from the spiral arms of the machine, there is a satisfying thunk. The unitary fudge is a halfhearted slap, lacking the density of it's more palatable cousin. A poor substitute, but if I want any fudge ice cream at all, this is what I must obtain. And I fear that when the supply of standard strength fudge is depleted, then I will have to scour the remains of quarter fudge and microfudge icecreams, and soon it will be homeopathic fudge, otherwise known as vanilla.
I fear we may have reached Peak Fudge. I was promised that new sources of fudge would be located and this would replace the lost supply, but it has been five days and nothing has happened. Our government has not seen fit, nor has had the foresight to legislate a National Fudge Stockpile for these sorts of emergencies. I blame George Bush.
Oh the huge manatee
Ever since moving into the management track, I don't get the sort of customer interaction I used to enjoy. I have to rely on my loyal minions to provide me with the entertainment that only a good screw up can provide. And it had better be the customer who breaks his own hardware. I will flog and keelhaul anyone who does something like...like this:
Yeah. That's the way you do it.
When I chmod a folder on my server, i had a mistake and i typed "chmod 644 -R /"Yeah. That's the way you do it.
Oh yeah, a title
This is a test of code formatting.
SITES=`/usr/local/bin/sitelookup -a site_root`
SITERETVAL=$?
if [ $SITERETVAL -eq 0 ]; then
for siteroot in $SITES
do
if [ -d $siteroot/var/tmp ]; then
echo $siteroot exists, don't touch
else
echo $siteroot NOT EXIST, mangling a new tmp dir...
mkdir $siteroot/var/tmp
chmod 1777 $siteroot/var/tmp
echo Mangled.
fi
done
fi
Lack of crap
After moving things to 4.1 and re-deploying all the scripts, I've noticed one good thing...a billionfold reduction in spam. Every day I would still get hit by comment spam for posts more than 2 years old, which of course ticked me off because it was 1) spam 2) a constant reminder I'm not writing something 3) spam 4) stupid. The vast majority wasn't even a "hey pls buy stuff", rather, it was link farm spam, to inflate various pay per click statistics at any cost.
Why me? Why the hell use me? It is rhetorical, I know, because the people doing it don't give a damn in any way, shape, or form, because enough people are dumb enough to click the link and generate that fraction of a penny.
Naturally, this blog run, I will be a lot more proactive in fending it off, because I hate spam, and it is stupid.
Why me? Why the hell use me? It is rhetorical, I know, because the people doing it don't give a damn in any way, shape, or form, because enough people are dumb enough to click the link and generate that fraction of a penny.
Naturally, this blog run, I will be a lot more proactive in fending it off, because I hate spam, and it is stupid.
