dleigh.plan

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +1000


About 2 or 3 weeks ago I developed some problem with my joints,
especially my arms. My wrists have been hit the worst, which made
it impossible to type at the time.  Splints/Braces and Ice packs
on my wrists and arms tend to be the only thing that helps.

It's improved somewhat in the last week - to the point where I can
type for short periods - but I still can't hold a mouse without
severe pain in my hands and shooting up my arms.

This is going to mean a few changes:
   - Probably less updates here.
   - I'll be on IRC less then ever, probably not at all.
   - Email response times may be several days or worse.
   - I won't be taking any shifts at the DP office until we
     get some new input devices sorted out. Even then, I
     probably won't be taking solo shifts.

As well as the medical aspects I've spent a lot of time looking
into alternative input devices, including speech recognition
- which apart from Dragon's expensive Windows-only software is
generally useless.

The only split keyboard in local shops is the MS 4000 one, which
costs around $60-$80 and doesn't have enough vertical angle to be
fully comfortable for me. Getting a better one imported from
overseas will cost around three times that plus shipping (although
well worth it if it helps).

Pointing devices are worse. So far I've been mostly limited to my
laptop's touchpad, which is uncomfortable but usable. I haven't
been able to find external touchpads anywhere locally, and the
only trackball is the fairly awkward Logitech Marble Mouse, around
$50 or more.

I've been looking for vertical or pistol grip mice without
success. I did find a weird ring-mouse thing at the Camberwell
swap meet, which is more comfortable held in a clenched hand than
worn on a finger.

neef has been providing me with advice on ergonoimic input devices,
and kindly lent me a good Kensington trackball today. I've been
using it for a few hours now - the longest I've been able to work
for since this started.

If anyone knows where I can pick up any vertical mice, trackballs,
touchpads, good ergonomic keyboards or miscellaneous input devices
_in or around Melbourne_, please mail me. Later this week I'm
going to dig out my old gamepads and joystick and give them a try.


PS: This was revision 666 of my dotfiles svn repository. Coincidence?

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:56:00 +1000


   $ mutt
   19 kept, 7 deleted.

Win.

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:00:00 +1000


After 3 weeks and around 70KB of VHDL, finally got my 68k
clone working in hardware. Presentations are tomorrow.

RMIT .inbox was down to 22 yesterday, now on 27.

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:35:00 +1000


.inbox: 26 kept, 17 deleted.

New all year low.

Fri, 30 May 2008 07:13:00 +1000


I last slept sometime on Wednesday morning.

Aaargh.

Finally getting some rest.

Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:00 +1000


   $ mutt
   67 kept, 24 deleted.

That's an all year low.

Current mood: Whatever it is when you are trying to mark an assignment
              and do 2 assignments and finish 3 labs which should
              have been done by now and write tute solutions and
              hints and answer 2 hours of student questions each day
              and implement a 68k processor from scratch in VHDL and
              learn a new programming language and write an exam for a
              subject when you don't even know how long it going to
              be all at the same time.

PS: I forgot about the weblearn quizzes and tests, too.

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +1000


Apr  6 06:20:04 clarence kernel:
   ad4: TIMEOUT - READ_DMA48 retrying (1 retry left) LBA=470360994
Apr  6 06:20:04 clarence kernel:
   ad4: FAILURE - READ_DMA48 status=51<READY,DSC,ERROR> error=4<ABORTED>
                                                           LBA=470360994
Apr  6 06:20:04 clarence kernel:
   g_vfs_done():ad4s2f[READ(offset=57219432448, length=16384)]error = 5


ad4 is the drive on clarence holding swap, root, /var, /usr and
/archive. ad4s2f is /usr.

I only managed to take a look at it last night. All FS are consistent
(props to UFS2) although there were lots of Incorrect Block Counts and
Soft Update Inconsitencies. It doesn't look like anything important
was lost, although I haven't done a full comparison with the last
known good dumps.

The proximate causes were probably (a) power issues due to the storms
(b) ourmon. Ourmon is an insanely overengineered network monitoring
system I was using, and it can put a lot of strain on the system;
nearly all the errors were in its logs and rrd files (which occupied
about 70% of the space on /usr too).

I wasn't too worried anyway - I do a full fs dump every week, with
daily incremental ones. All are sent to another local machine, and the
weeklies are copied offsite.

PS: for those who like their evidence anecdotal, the drive is a Maxtor.

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +1100


Still overworked (the "mid-semester holiday" didn't even give me a
chance to catch up). Still having trouble with weblearn bugs and
blackboard being offline every second time I try to use it (or
just giving me access denied errors for no reason). I've dropped
half my subjects which should help with the overwork bit.

Asthma giving me hell, possibly because of a cold, possibly
because of cleaning up heaps of spilt toner at work on Wednesday,
which I should have been wearing a gas mask for (or better yet,
not doing it at all).

Other news: rebulding gnome-panel for the 5th or so time, because
someone decided that the fucking weather applet is a non-optional
part of Gnome on FreeBSD. If this shit keeps up we'll have to stop
using Gnome.

Other other news: Moved slightly closer to the city.

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +1100


Semester has started. Badly. Blackboard overloaded and died when I was
in the middle of a _Network Infrastructure_ lab, of all things. 7
hours later and it's still hosed.

I've been horribly overworked the past few weeks: preparing for my
(studying) classes, preparing for my (teaching) classes, figuring out
which subjects I can be enrolled in (I'm going to have to drop 4 of my
currently enrolled subjects); not to mention trying to get on top of
assorted health problems and arrange alternative assessment for the
Scripting Language exam. I've been at uni 10am-9pm most days last week.

Currently fixing the accounts of a few dozen students who weren't
studying a CS subject last semester. The games students were
discussing how poorly Java compares to C, which has given me renewed
hope in the course.

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +1100


More I've gleaned from the issue paper on the RFC on Copyright Exceptions:

 - The copy is regarded as temporary. Under some circumstances you
   have to delete it after you watch it. Sometimes you have to
   delete if if you watch the *original*.

 - (sec 12) The restrictions on private copies of photographs and
   films are stricter than on audio (copying audio is covered by
   Section 109A of the act).

 - (sec 23) Digital-to-digital photo/film copying is not
   permitted, even for private use. Yes, that means you can't copy
   a DVD to your pocket AV player (the paper uses that example).
   Digital to Digital *audio* copying is allowed.

 - (sec 41-45) Copying which requires defeating any "Technological
   Protection Measures" is not allowed (so you still couldn't copy
   a DVD legally). The government is unfortunately NOT inviting
   comment on this part, but is interested in the "extent" of media
   released without TPMs (see sec 45).

 - This covers some parts of computer games (under certain
   circumstances they are considered a "cinematograph film". The
   above restrictions on TPMs apply.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see yesterday's .plan and
http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/\
Copyright_IssuesandReviews_Copyingphotosandfilmsforprivateuse

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +1100


Chest pains: Nearly gone, still resurface occasionally when sitting
             or bent over. Just did my imaging tests, but haven't seen
             the results yet.

Paid Work:   No news. No offers. Still looking.

Website:     Minor changes to todo.c.  Some new screenshots.

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

From BB (or more specifically "Kate"):

   The Australian Attorney-General's department is inviting
   submissions from the public on copying of movies and images in
   different formats for private use.

   These were sections of the Copyright Amendment Act introduced in
   December 2006 that made it legal for Aussies to do things they'd
   been doing for decades, such as recording a tv broadcast to tape
   or disc, but illegal to watch such recordings more than once!

   The Minister is required by the Act to review these exceptions
   after two years and is now inviting comment.

   This is a good opportunity to argue for the exceptions to be
   expanded (not contracted!) to come into line with general
   consumer behaviour.

Submissions must be in by the end of February (the 29th).

http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/\
Copyright_IssuesandReviews_Copyingphotosandfilmsforprivateuse
 ^ Issues paper and instructions for making submissions

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/21/aussies-heres-your-c.html
 ^ Original BoingBoing post (as you can see from the date I've
   been sitting on this for a while, hoping to do it myself)

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +1100


No updates for a while, 2008 has been remarkably shitty so far.
I've been very ill, temporarily lost a heap of mail to a global
config cock-up when fetchmail was upgraded on yallara, and left
without any real source of income.

After being screwed around for another month by centerlink I was
told I can't get "Newstart" (i.e. the dole) if I'm studying at
university. Yes, that's right, if you are on the dole you are
*not allowed* to be studying a course longer than a few weeks,
even if it doesn't interfere with looking for a job. This wouldn't
bother me so much if they had just said so back in October - they
knew full well at the time I was a uni student.

In other news, I've had terrible upper chest pains - it seems to be
some inflammation or problem with the chest wall and possibly the
cartilage near my ribs. I've had a heap of tests done this week,
everything bar x-ray or ultrasound imaging. All we know is that it's
probably not heart problems (because my ECG is fine) and probably not
pneumonia (because I'm not coughing up anything and my lungs sound
clear), even if it is making it even more difficult for me to breathe.

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

Valdrax sums up free market healthcare brilliantly:

   Anyone who understands free market capitalism should understand
   why it doesn't work for healthcare. The rational, informed,
   value-seeking man does not exist in the healthcare world. Real
   healthcare patients are seeking the best treatment that they can
   afford, not the cheapest healthcare that will probably get the job
   done. That's the kind of market where prices go up instead of down
   because the only downward price pressure is whether or not a
   provider can find enough people that can pay at the prices they offer.

   Matters of life and death are not ruled by bargain-seeking
   behavior, and thus the entire driving forces of supply and demand
   are thrown completely out of whack. Anyone who's spent any time
   studying economics should recognize that the fundamental
   assumption of modern economic theory doesn't apply here.

   -- http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=423562&cid=22106702


More on the same topic:
   http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=423562&cid=22107346
   http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=423562&cid=22106402
   http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=423562&cid=22106332

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +1100


   Website Changelog:

Updated the links page to include uni friends, some PC parts stores
and a big list of webcomics.

   Cunterlink Changelog:

On the 28th (or so) of November I got a letter stating that my
Youth Allowance was cancelled (with the last payment being 26th of
October).  I went to the local Centrelink and was told I would
have to apply for "Newstart" - and I had to do this at home, over
the phone, and then come in for an intervew later.

So I go home and call them, and arrange an interview. Later I have
to move the interview due to illness, and over the phone they
assure me that's fine, all I need to do is get a medical
certificate (which I do). Next business day I go to the local
Centrelink again and get a new appointment.

When I show up for my interview, I am told that since 14 days have
passed since I made the phone call, my claim has been cancelled (I
wasn't told anything about this time limit before). I am told I
have to go home again and call them to start the process all over
again, they won't do anything at this interview.

Yes, they refused to do anything at the appointment I had arranged
with them, I was told to go home *from my appointment* and ring
the phone number again to arrange a new appointment. The
interviewee refused to look at my paperwork or arrange a new claim
or otherwise do anything about it.

I've made a new claim - and lodged an appeal about the first one -
but it looks like I won't have any income until sometime in January.

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +1100


Feeling better, but still unwell.

In my downtime, I've picked up playing Enemy Territory and Anarchy
Online again. Nice to know I haven't lost the rambo adren medic
magic, and my old guild is still alive.

Website changelog: Fixed the bug with the index links on the RPG
                   files pointing to the main notes index, and not
                   the RPG section index.

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +1100


So for my birthday I got a virus, and 4 days of horrible
diarrhea, stomach pains and blinding headaches (and being
unable to eat anything). They really do get worse every year.

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

      Website Changelog:

 - Fixed the timezone on the home page, .plan script and .plan RSS.
   Should now be Melbourne regardless of the server's physical location.

 - Fixed the extra line breaks in the RSS feed contents.

 - New Lost Emulators page: http://dylanleigh.net/software/lostemulators/
   Mirrors of DGen-SDL and Generator-cbiere.

 - Am in the process of fixing the stupid bug where the
   Dreamhost server keeps trying to execute my perl scripts
   instead of letting the user download them.

   UPDATE: Fixed. Should also be using text/plain for c now.

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +1100


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7096456.stm

   "A man who had gone into a diabetic coma on a bus in Leeds
    was shot twice with a Taser gun by police who feared he may
    have been a security threat."

    The unconcious man "failed to respond to their challenges".

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/I-went-into-a-diabetic.3489707.jp

   "Police were called and two officers, who had been issued
    with Tasers just a fortnight earlier, boarded the empty bus
    and used the weapons twice on Mr Gaubert after he failed to
    respond to instructions."

   "West Yorkshire Police told him that he had been blasted
    twice with the weapons because after the first shock he had
    fallen from his seat and lay face down with one hand
    underneath his body.

    Officers said when he failed to respond to requests to
    remove his hand, they felt they had to stun him again to
    ensure it was safe to approach."

Of course, no disciplinary action has been taken - you can't
really expect police to be able to tell a man in a coma from
a knife-wielding maniac.


   More Taser Stuff:

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/\
0,22049,22814674-5001028,00.html?from=public_rss

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=369817&cid=21467359
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=369817&cid=21467167
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=369817&cid=21467019
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=369817&cid=21467217

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +1100


   A patch which fixes the XDMCP problem has been found; props to
   Robert Nelson and Brian Cameron on Gnome's Bugzilla.

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-gnome/2007-November/018614.html
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=495623
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=494817

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

In other news, I've been looking for good emulators for Sega
Genesis/MegaDrive and Master System; preferably ones that work on my
Laptop (Ubuntu) and the XDMCP server (FreeBSD):

 - DGen (Genesis) - Slow but stable with good compatibility.
   No GUI user interface. Not updated since 2004, and website
   disappeared earlier this month :(

 - Gens (Genesis) - Very fast. FBSD port is a bit behind the linux
   version which is a bit behind the windows version. Some forks
   around, no updates since 2005. i386 only.

 - Fusion (Genesis/SMS/Lots...) - Written by Snake, excellent apart
   from being windows-specific; lots of DX calls, problems on wine.
   Still maintained.

 - Generator (Genesis) - Awkward interface but unsurpassed multiplatform
   support. A bit faster than DGen but not as fast as Gens. Not
   actively maintained since 2005.

 - Meka (SMS and similar) - Excellent speed and compatibility, neat
   debugging stuff, but the Linux version is two versions behind the
   windows and there is no FBSD port. Still maintained; latest release
   was 2007-05-17.

I'll think about fixing the Gens port for amd64 and possibly a Meka
port - I have a lot of meka save files. Getting Gens and meka into the
Ubuntu repositories would be nice - they build without problems on 7.10.

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +1100


Upgraded to Gnome 2.20, which stopped XDMCP logins from working.
It seems GDM 2.20 has a bug where it only works on IPv6 mapped
IPv4, not plain IPv4:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-gnome/2007-November/018561.html
http://www.nabble.com/remaining-issues-with-gnome-2.20-t4721430.html

Downgrading to gdm-2.18.4_1 works at first and makes a connection,
but then GDM can't start some services and the client hangs on the
gdm background - probably because of the DATADIR change, and being
out of sync with all the other bits of GNOME...

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

   Yes, Minister explains British papers:

Jim Hacker: Don't tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the
            papers: The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run
            the country, The Guardian is read by people who think they ought
            to run the country, The Times is read by people who actually do
            run the country, The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the
            people who run the country, The Financial Times is read by people
            who own the country, The Morning Star is read by people who think
            the country ought to be run by another country and the
            Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.

Sir Humphrey: What about the people who read the Sun?

Bernard Wooley: Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as
                she's got big tits.

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +1100


Quite horribly sick for the past week. :(

The good news: dylanleigh.net is now on Dreamhost, so it
should be a lot faster and more stable. Keeping the .plan
and .taglines synchronized between RMITCS, home and
Dreamhost is going to be the hard part.

In other website news, most of the referers I get from
search engines are to be expected:
   "dylan leigh",
   "dice roller silhouette" and "silhouette dice roller",
   "trombone slide position chart" (sometimes with "pdf"),
   "max payne lethalmod"

Less frequent but more amusing:
   "how to be legally ordained",
   "sex with a turtle",
   "siegheil.gif",
   "lolicon law"

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +1100


Tax finished. The confusion over superannuation interest was
nothing compared to depreciating assets partially used for
education and partially for work.

When is a Low Value Asset not part of your Low Value Pool? When
it's a Low Cost Asset which depreciated in value below $300 in the
last financial year! Bah.

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

I have cookies/flash/javascript disabled for most sites, as
letting network services you happen to connect you run programs or
store files on your computer violates nearly every principle of
security.

Anyway... I went to the _Perfect Dark_ site today, and as it's all
in JS and flash, I got nothing but a screen of pure black.

   http://www.dylanleigh.net/pics/screens/perfectdarkwebsite.png

The irony is overwhelming.

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +1000


Globe and Mail:

  "Sixteen Canadians have died in the past 4.5 years after being
   tasered, according to Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward. They are:
   April 19, 2003: Terrance Hanna, 51, Burnaby, B.C. July 22, 2003:
   Clay Willey, 33, Prince George, B.C. Sept. 28, 2003: Clark
   Whitehouse, 34, Whitehorse, Yukon March 23, 2004: Perry Ronald,
   28, Edmonton May 1, 2004: Roman Andreichikov, 25, Vancouver May
   13, 2004: Peter Lamonday, 38, London, Ont. "

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/\
RTGAM.20071025.wtaser1026/BNStory/National/home#

http://news.amnesty.org.au/news/comments/\
usa_taser_related_deaths_pass_150_mark/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/\
RTGAM.20071023.wshock23/BNStory/National

  "There is evidence to suggest that, far from being used to avoid
   lethal force, many police agencies are deploying tasers as a
   routine force option to subdue non-compliant or disturbed
   individuals who do not pose a serious danger to themselves or
   others. In some departments, tasers have become the most prevalent
   force tool. They have been used against unruly schoolchildren;
   unarmed mentally disturbed or intoxicated individuals; suspects
   fleeing minor crime scenes and people who argue with police or
   fail to comply immediately with a command."

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +1000


<alhazan> man noone has autorejoin these days
<alhazan> its almost as if they interpreted the kicking as a
          sign that they werent wanted in the channel

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

Sick today. No updates, but fixed some things that weren't appearing
on the image gallery properly (regex didn't take in uppercase filename
extensions).

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +1000


   (from yesterday, snipped lots)

<Synapse > "Not meaning to tread on their parade, but won't these
           people ever get tyred of re-inventing the wheel?"
<alhazan > Synapse: you spelt "tired" wrong
<Synapse > pun ->
<Synapse > you: |
<alhazan > ignorance is bliss
<Synapse > and also: "No matter how much you push the envelope,
           it'll still be stationery."
-!- Synapse was kicked from #pants by Z [(alhazan) daily pun limit exceeded]
...
<alhazan > im going to design a language where punning is impossible
<alhazan > then execute anyone who doesnt speak it
<dandaman> just use C
<NAbyss  > dandaman: but C is easy.
<NAbyss  > short dick;
<dandaman> shit
<dandaman> binary
<Synapse > speaking in binary is a bit hard though
<geoffwa > what about
<Synapse > speaking in binary is a *bit* hard though
<Synapse > come on guys dont make me spell it out
<darkmoon> < Synapse> speaking in binary is a *bit* hard though <-- so fired.

(...)

<kristvoir> there is a timespace vortex in Belgrave
<Boney    > so that's why they have no electricity.
<kristvoir> yes
<Boney    > they have to run their vortex.
<Synapse  > we create electricity out of the vortex
<Synapse  > well, I'm pretty positive we do
<darkmoon > nnnnngh
<Synapse  > (sorry, that was weak)
<kristvoir> wow i missed the pun
<Boney    > Synapse: oh,  I get it!
<Synapse  > ok
<Synapse  > we CURRENTLY do
<darkmoon > noo
<kristvoir> uewepuep: fucking ban him
<Synapse  > on what GROUNDS?
<darkmoon > noo!
<kristvoir> heavily forested
<Synapse  > what are you going to *charge* me with?
<kristvoir> i can't take this anymore
-!- kristvoir has left #pants []
<Synapse  > :/
<darkmoon > you broke chris =(
...
<Synapse  > I guess all those electricity puns Shocked him...

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

Alhazan's random quote of today:
   "nope, but if its amputee porn you need, ive got you covered"

#pants meet summarized:
 - Only boney, darkmoon and I showed up.
 - Mmmm, bourbon.

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +1000


http://www.psychsound.com/2007/10/a_tale_of_two_decisions_or_how.html
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/22/1528244

  "Apparently, when the court originally posted their decision (complete
   with backstory) it detailed how a coerced confession was obtained by
   the FBI from Abdallah Higazy in relation to the 9/11 attacks. The
   details, however, were later removed and deemed "classified"."

(Higazy was completely innocent; he confessed to assorted things related
 to the 2001-9-11 attacks when his family was threatened with torture)

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

Also: many, many new taglines.

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 22:57:00 +1000


                   _  ___  _  _    ___ ____ _____ __
                  / |/ _ \| || |  ( _ ) ___|___  / /_
                  | | | | | || |_ / _ \___ \  / / '_ \
                  | | |_| |__   _| (_) |__) |/ /| (_) |
                  |_|\___/   |_|  \___/____//_/  \___/

   Yes, as of last entry, the .plan has passed the One Megabyte
   Milestone. I'd say something profound, but my spacebar and right
   shift key are broken and it's 30 degrees at an hour to midnight
   and I'm tired and want to go to bed.

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

In other news, I am now using dnsmasq, which is much lighter (5M)
and easier to work with than bind.

No page updates today, and there might not be any for a while, as
I have an exam on November 2, tax due at the end of the month, and
possibly moving to consider.

PS: I'm downloading all the Ubuntu 7.10 stuff off the Internode
    mirror, and will have 3-4 DVDs of stuff to bring in on Tuesday.

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

<Synapse>   http://www.geocities.com/indiana129/hentai.jpeg
            well, it's almost like he's getting laid
<kristvoir> noone will click on your links dylan
<Synapse  > Is there any reassurance I can give that that's not elf porn?
<Synapse  > fuck
<Synapse  > I meant to say EEL
  * Synapse confusing perversions
<kristvoir> lol dylan likes humanoids
<kristvoir> totally outed