Charting a new course

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Oh man, what a day!

I logged off for some shuteye around 0600 and awoke about 0836 or so when the people from our new ISP/Phone provider (we just bundled with the cable company). Managed to talk a little with the supervisor of the two about the setup involved, you could say the feeling that the other knew their ass from a hole in the ground was mutual >_>.

Because the cable boxes and the computer are on opposite sides of the rooms from the computers — that’s how the apartment was originally setup by a previous provider (Which was thrown out of the complex when the owners cut a deal with another company 0.o). So we had to go out and get some wireless cards, I paid for them as I agreed to if it would (and likely would) come to it.

So far, I’ve been cursed with shopping, practically stabbed in the eye, wondering why the bleeding heck our modems refuse to talk to my laptop or our router, and cannibalizing a pair of PCs, cut my finger, and I’ve been doing it all on ~2 hours sleep and a can of root beer !!!!!!

After drinking a bit of a root beer, we went out to get her shoppin’ done and grab the cards, the plan was to be home in plenty of time to spare to get her and my (gaming) desktop hooked up so I could make it to Medics Live OP.

I was leaning over to put the water down when ma made an unexpected move of the arm and I nearly got the end of the car keys tip in my left eye. It must have only jabbed towards the point closer to the nose because I still have an eye left, it didn’t hurt, and there is no sign of damage — as much as I like MGS3, I really don’t want to end up in an eye patch like Big Boss someday.

Thank GOD for protecting fools and star ships named Enterprise 😉

While we were talking with someone at Best Buy, I asked the guy if they carried any RAM in the store and he sent me over to the Geek Squad (y). I got a 512mb dimm of PC2700 for Ma’s computer along with three LInksys WMP54G PCI adapters and we hit Krogers.

I had a plan, I really did dang nab’it ! Check the manual for the ram speed to make sure the new chip was compatible (I bought PC2700 going by memory). Copy my Wifi data to each PC, setup the router, install each wifi card, and be *early* to the live op but it didn’t work out that way.

First thing I did was plug in the router and try and set it up using DHCP instead of PPPoE but that didn’t work. So I took the CAT-5e and hooked up the modem directly to my laptops on board Marvell Yukon and wondered, wtf is my modems address since it isn’t offering DHCP services?

About 1930-1600Z I remembered the tenth commandment of C programmers*

Thou shalt foreswear, renounce, and abjure the vile heresy which claimeth that “All the world’s a VAX”, and have no commerce with the benighted heathens who cling to this barbarous belief, that the days of thy program may be long even though the days of thy current machine be short.

I ripped apart my desktop setup and hooked SAL up on the floor near the living room modem and plugged her in directly. Booted windows, opened IE7 just to be sure for compatibility, and sure enough got a welcome message from the modem! Oh go fsck yourselfs!!! But it works.

Setup the modem over HTTP, got a really fucking fast connection compared to AT&Ts aDSL line. A quick speed test out of Atlanta showed like 3-5 times the data rates we were getting!

After that I shutdown and used my now cleared desk as a work table. Cracked open Ma’s Dell 4550 for a little cleaning, install the WMP54G, upgraded the RAM from 512mb to 768mb and took the desktops original stick of PC 2100. I found that her PC was running a PC2100 and a PC2700 sprig of 256MB at 266Mhz.

Then I cracked open Vectra (an HP Vli8 500+more PC100 ram) and my brothers junked Dell 4500 PC on the “operating table”. The Dell is missing it’s CD-ROM drives and Ethernet NIC. There were two EIDE hard drives when I first salvaged it, a 40GB Western Digital and an 80GB Hitachi. The 80GB has been in Vectra for awhile now as a secondary disk but I left the smaller 40GB due to lack of space.

I tried the 40GB to see if there was a working install of Windows left on it before formatting it, the BIOS couldn’t boot off it. So I pulled the CD-ROM drive out of Vectra and popped myself in the head. I only had one set of mounting brackets left for the Dell case — which while compatible with the hard drives don’t fit the CD-ROM drive !!!

So I did something that is probably stupid but effective. Hooked up the CD-ROM to the PSU and secondary EIDE port on the mother board, sandwiching the drive between the case and the lid before I booted her. Then popped myself in the head again when the CD tray ejected ‘upside down’, I wondered why the power dongle needed to plug into the wrong side.

Flipped it over, rebooted and loaded Knoppix LiveCD but still couldn’t access that 40GB drive. I know Live CDs are slow (and that drives dated 1999 and 32X max reading speed) but it was actually a _lot_ faster then I thought it would be on 256MB of PC2100. Then I took out Vectra’s root disk an 8.4GB Maxtor hosting my OpenBSD installation and switched mounting brackets.

She still wouldn’t boot, so I tried my boot floppy from OpenBSD 4.1 (I didn’t use a floppy for the 4.2/4.3 upgrades). I shutdown and switched the cable to the other mate on the EIDE line and rebooted, worked perfectly. Then I stuck in the 40GB drive and hooked it up on the previous one. That way I could boot knoppix and scope out the 40GB drive.

I’ve read about Master/Slave issues with (P)ATA/(E)IDE based systems and what not like this before but it’s actually the first time I’ve ever seen the BIOS fail to detect and boot a drive, maybe previous systems I’ve worked on were just well cabled to avoid it ^_^.

There is a legit copy of windows on the drive and some files, so I may as well back that up just in case I need it later. ‘Cuz I didn’t get a copy of the restore disks from my brother when he gave me the PC, several months after he stripped it for ‘parts’ to use on his new custom PC. Right now I’ve got both of Vectra’s hard drives installed, I would have put all three in it as there is enough space but I just don’t have enough mounting brackets.

And while I’m willing to use a CD-ROM drive without mounting it in the case — a hard drive is full of data so I take precautions. So I can dump it later if ever, right now it’s on my desk. I had to get the drives sorted to move Vectras OpenBSD install cleanly over and install the PCI card for the wireless. That system is good to go as soon as I figure out how to get it working on my network, since OpenBSD 4.3 doesn’t support my networks level of encryption and I’m not sure if my network supports the next ideal solution lol.

Afterwards I setup my desktop (SAL1600) with the last of the WiFi cards and for the heck of it, hooked up my spare monitor and configured Dual View on my nVidia 8400GS. I find it some what disorienting especially because the second monitor has very shitty colour compared to my primary. I also don’t have another power cord to use with the other two PCs lol.

If I buy another power cable or two I can get all 4 computers running. I’m just itching for the phones to get sorted on the land lines so I can switch the modems and move the router to my bedroom, that way I can hook up one PC via Ethernet.

About 0000GMT I finally got to sit down and eat, took a nice long nap after that !!!!

* Ten Commands of C Programmers, annoted edition

Note to self, don’t use GNU m4 on Win32

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Bah, humbug !!!

the focal point of the entire operation is a suitable pre-processor.

The idea:

defined test substitution macros generated by front end for pre processor

template file that relies upon said macros

output to be generated from preprocessing the macros from in the template.

The problem?

Target platform: MicroShaft Windows NT 5.1 (XP)

At first I figured I would use the C Pre-Processor since MinGW is on the target box, along with several other development tools.

Then I remembered I have GNU utilities for Win32 installed on this machine. So I took a look and found that a port of GNU m4 v1.4 is installed. I learned enough of the m4 ‘macro’ language just for tasks like this but guess what!

m4.exe fails to expand all macros in the template file.

Being more then somewhat disappointed, I ssh’d into my OpenBSD machine and fed it through the m4 implementation it comes with (not GNU), and guess what?

That freaking works fine.

*unzips fly, pisses on m4.exe*

Odds are the 1.4.11 version of GNU m4 I have on FreeBSD installed from ports works, hell scripting OpenBSDs sed works for this task, let along custom perl !

So I’ve just used vim to quickly :%s/m4 defines/cpp defines and seem to have to use that in order to get it working. Nice, simple, and effective.

*grrrrr*

task list:

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modify that module wiz wanted worked on 😉 — tonight

finish neo ports manager — on going

write article(s) for BSD Mag — weekend, ongoing

write front end for a pre-processor and template based idea for work. — now

Medics live op — tomorrow

work on kde4 — as soon as people let me

write specifications and carry out planning for project black widow — classified until further notice.

Ahh another late night…

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Spent about a half hour adjusting last nights work to use a more snappy display. I’ve also gotten the rest of the module done except for the final output to file, since that connects to a module that doesn’t exist yet (note to self, create a dummy).

I’ve been spending a lot of time with C++ and Qt4 lately… I must say, it does grow on you! Although I do personally find Python and Ruby better suited for building prototypes but whatever works.

My heads telling me, I could stream roll a few more things that need trimmin’ but I know if I did that, I would either end up going to bed about the time I need to report for work or worse, end up using Dixie as a pillow >_>. So I guess I’ll have to do those the next night I work on this codebase, rather then tackle the next phase by then :

Sleeping with your head propped on a laptops keyboard is probably not comfortable!

Hence it’s bed time…

misc thoughts

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Well some progress, aside from spending an embarrassing amount of time trying to find a problem starring me right in the face shouting “this is wrong you moron!”, I suppose exhaustion can do that…

To be perfectly honest I think one of my biggest problems is my multi-lingual nature when it comes to programming. In the past couple days, I’ve used Bourne (with best buddies SED & AWK of course), Perl, Ruby, PHP, and C++ for various tasks.

In a large way, a language is just pretty much a language to me, a standard syntax, types, and subroutines if you will. Generally I think about solving problems in a way that doesn’t really connect to a specific language. Sure I tend to write and think in a language of the moment but at the end of the day, the implementation is the language specific part — not the solution.

When it’s something that takes me a bit of thought, I usually write it done in a form of pseudo code that relates to how I read code.

Then start thinking about that, i.e. it’s behavior: I dislike needing debugging aids when a brain will suffice. Then I start thinking about how to implement it, which often tends to lead to what language I’ll be using if not already knee deep in it.

For example, when it comes to regular expressions I very, very greatly prefer Perl and Ruby for such tasks. Python in particular has always felt (to me) a bit chunky at regexes compared to Perl but to each their own methods. Heck, a lot of times a scratch and run Perl script is my way of testing regular expressions for things.

Tonight I needed to figure out how to process a programs output, I quickly found the QProcess class to be increasingly *annoying* so I threw it out in favor of popen() and the usual methods — works like a charm. Then took a quick sample of the programs output, wrote a perl script to handle the operations upon it that was needed.

Then used the QRegExp and QString classes to implement the program using those regular expressions: skipping the compile time frustrations and indexing issues. Then proceeded to expand it into something able to meet my required behavior, after checking enough scenarios to validate it (to me). Then tested that to make sure it still behaved properly and moved on to using it to work on the next problem.

I’ve been using C++ a lot lately, really odd because I mostly quit using it after picking up C and Ruby a couple years ago lol.

0400, time for bed… but first it’s snack time!!!

believe it or not but a few hours of working on the computer has a few side effects ^_^

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Ahh… home from work.

The jobs about two times the size of our others but it wasn’t really as bad as I originally thought. That’s probably a good thing, now if only it was possible to get more work done when I’m not at work :

Between family and work I’m falling even further behind schedule !!!

Live Free or Die Hard

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Great movie for the fourth time out 🙂

It’s like John McClane arguably has the worst luck of any character to ever grace the action flick scene. They send him to pick up a computer-noid and I’m thinking back to a scene in Mindnight Run when the bond guy tells him to whack’em over the head with a hose, toss’em in a bag, and drive back.

of course in McClanes case he gets shot at and almost blown up!

Live Free or Die Hard really depicts a horrible scenario for cyber terrorism. It’s utterly horrifying when you consider how much American society has become reliant on technological networks, satellites, quick como between emergency services, geeze.

Still, it was some fine stuff at work hehe. The traffic jam in the tunnel, ramming a car into a helicopter because he’s pissed off and out of bullets! Smashing through a building in an SUV, into the terrorist chick, and down an elevator shaft after being chucked out a window. A joint Strike Fighter trying to swat his stolen terro-big rig on the highway haha.

The ending, I just couldn’t help be chuckle through it between how they finally took out Thomas Gabriel -> must’ve known plenty about computers but jack crap about geometry and physics when it involves bullets hehe. Not to mention the ending before they all end up on the way to a hospital >_>

****spoiler warning****

Thomas Gabriel: On your tombstone it should say “Always in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
John McClane: How about “Yippi-kay-ay, motherfu – “

[ later ]

Lucy McClane: Daddy, you’re out of your mind.
John McClane: What’re you talkin’ about?
Lucy McClane: You shot yourself!
John McClane: [groaning] It seemed like a good idea at the time.

*** end spoiler warning ***

Honestly, it’s like if John McClane ever took a vacation and let “someone else” handle it, he would probably end up sitting on a beach somewhere sipping a margarita and then terrorists pour in with machine guns -> it could only happen to him! lol

You could say, he really is always in the wrong place at the right time 😉

Happy trails.

Speed Learning — m4

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Was on my way to bed (read sitting in front of my laptop <_<) and caught The One on TV just 10 minutes into it. I had seen part of it before but never got to see the second half 🙁

Now in search of something else to watch, I noticed that Live Free or Die Hard starts in at 0140Q, it’s currently 0112Q — so…

Early today I found out that the m4 macro language processor is not a ‘GNU Thing’ although GNU m4 is used as part of the gnu tool chain. Since it’s a language dating back to the 1970s and I could rather use something like m4 from the looks of it.

Let’s see how much I can learn from FreeBSDs m4 manual page before the movie starts hehe 🙂

Tick tock

Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue

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One song on yee old favorite radio station that I felt was aptly appropriate today:

American girls and American guys, will always stand up and salute.
We’ll always recognize, when we see ol’ glory flying,
There’s a lot of men dead,
So we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our heads.
My daddy served in the army where he lost his right eye,
But he flew a flag out in our yard ’til the day that he died.
He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me.
To grow up and live happy in the land of the free.

Now this nation that I love is fallin’ under attack.
A mighty sucker-punch came flying in from somewhere in the back.
Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye,
Man, we lit up your world like the fourth of July.

Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly and it’s gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it’ll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue.

Oh, justice will be served and the battle will rage:
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage.
An’ you’ll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A.
‘Cos we’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way.

Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly and it’s gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it’ll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue.

Oh, oh.
Of the red, white and blue.
Oh, hey, oh.
Of my Red, White and Blue.

— Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue., Keith Toby

They also had a lot of Johnny Cash tunes on hehe 😉