On the war path…

The !%*)Y!)% !(%Y)! %)! %)! %)&! (%() !@%!#@!% !%! !!!

I’m sitting here working on C++/Qt4 code and my music is cutting in/out and vim starts to lag. Ok, I figure it is either some process gone wachko eating system resources (which top suggested was not the case) or the router is going fuckers again.

Sure enough, everything relating to my network shares hangs -> I do a power cycle on the AP with no luck. Full reboot and still arguing…

pinging my ap gives < 2ms to > 200ms responses and an apparent average of 20-40% package loss +/- an extra 5-7% and things are still getting rat fucked here. One test, standing right next to the aerials I was getting upwards of 10-15% packet loss for crying out fucking loud.

I’m so going to kill something when I get to the bottom of this….

This level of connectivity starvation is proving to be lethal to the whole write/compile/test cycle, hell even the web browser is dying a laggy death trying to write in this text area. Which means I’m likely to loose the nights work.

That means, if I find the source of this interference, which appears to be costing me over 4 hours of optimal work time remaining on this code base…. there will be a Spidey on the war path — hardware or neighborer related.

Hmm, there is a very fine Italian expression but I won’t do it the dis justice of trying to spell it :.

Day originally was planned as a work day, became a day off, became a job interview — the house from hell so to speak, in terms of having to work in it but otherwise a decent gig.

A friends having a hard time, brings up more then a few… uncomfortable memories but I can generally sympatise.

Spent about an hour talking with Rasa over the colour of the bike shed, only about 10-15 minutes was actually productive 😐

After that, considering that between my family, my work, and Rasa, I was over 2.5 hours behind schedule… On a day I planned to hash through task after task after task. I decided to use some of the time otherwise getting wasted for me, to join the server.

Got in a few good rounds on PG#1, ain’t played RvS in a couple since I’ve spent most of my server time either training Jonsi or camping the SWAT4 server ;-). I was surprised to see that my accuracy is still doing good, each round I did between 70-90% hits and saw most of them through to completion.

After that, I ended up joining Duke for a couple games before I had to drop to finish my chores. Honestly, joining friends on the servers is probably the biggest break from projects I get !!!

Was watching The Abyss after dinner. Pretty good movie but reminds me, you couldn’t pay me to serve on a submarine. At least if a ship goes down, you have some chance if ya don’t freeze to death. But on a sub, it is not quite that easy to get out lol.

One strange thing, while I find the idea of being in such situations some what disturbing. I really think of the idea of space travel as quite fun lol.

Maybe because I never really learned how to swim? I dunno lol. After all, in the vacum of space your dead… In water, well you might drown but you also might get through Point A and Point B alive if you don’t run out of air +S

Wondering if I have any braincells remaining

Tired ….

Been working on a program for [SAS], was rather hoping to get it finished tonight but, time after work != cooperative. It’s only 0457 Zulu but my brains fragged, can’t concentrate on the code anymore.

Hopefully tomorrow, I can get it finished, it shouldn’t be that hard should it?

I only…

Need to finish testing the parser

Write the network interface

Write the display code.

or something like that. With luck, I’ll be off work so I’ll get to sleep in hopefully. I’m used to nodding off around local 0200-0700 and getting up around local 0930-0945 to get dressed (quickly!) for work. So, I like it when I have a chance to sleep a bit more lol.

Today was fairly good at work but it’s still one of two most strainous jobs of my week. And my family sure as fuck doesn’t help, hmm… Maybe if there was anyone in this rats nest that actually understood a lick of this, they might be less inclined to piss me off while I’m workin’ on something.

*sigh*

For much of the day, I’ve felt like shouting “If you don’t let me code today, I will go insane and I will take you with me!” but I know that would just be childish :.

A sledge hammer would work much more effectively ^_^

Helping people move != for the lazy

I’m bushed …

My sisters finally moved out, so most of the day was spent helping her. Although I did get ome break time with Dixie to work on a little Qt’coding. After the end of that, I got stuck helping ma re arrange stuff here (oy). Including having to take apart a bed, move a sewing machine, etc.

Had a couple rounds of SWAT4: TSS on PG#3 with Chester before dinner, and a good nap after that! Sitting here watching Tango & Cash,

zzzZzzzzZzzz

So tired…

The [SAS] Killhouse Redux is coming along nicely, haven’t been able to figure out one of the extra’s I wanted… but level 1A is now feature complete, pardoning the stairs. Level 2A is aout 40% done, the second wing, ladies room, and two more hotel rooms need furnishing + a wee bit of work in the hallway (decorations).

So far, the map is coming along pretty nice all things considered. I’ve also got some plans for a few ‘secret’ area’s just to make things interesting. Hehe, if I’m the smoe making the map, why not have a little fun?

The question is how long will it take the membership to find them ^_^

On another note, I’ve been trying to replace Konversation as my IRC client for *nix. Many KDE apps on my laptop seem to suffer greatly on performance when being run under fvwm instead of a full kde session. I tested out tirc, which is nice and handy — even has Vi based key bindings ^_^. The only problem is the bus error when forcing a nick greater then the 9-char standard and doing a call to the nickserv bot.

So far, it looks like it will probably boil down to learning either BitchX or irssi.

The only IRC clients I’ve really liked in the past have been, Konversation (the best!), Chatzilla, and X-Chat. But I’m not really in the mood for needing a web browser to run an IRC client, nor in using X-Chat again. Nice client but eh, kinda boring.

I really need to get some time to focus on KDE4, between family, life, and work. I’m behind schedule on everything these days :

Dang it… I need a vacation !!!!

Hmm, all in all quite a fun day.

Us guys went out, knocked over a Gandolfo’s Delicatessen for a couple nathan’s coney island dog (bad sadly without sauce :-(). I’m not exactly a big fan of hot dogs but when it involves Nathan’s famous dogs — I’m up for it >_>.

Three of us wandered around town for a couple hours before Uncle Pat and Aunt Ruth went off to Mass. Me and my brother sat outside, him smoking and I pacing while we talked lol. I wish he wouldn’t smoke but, better sugars then cigarettes I guess :. Afterward he played a bit of BF2 on my PC, he’s a good sniper but heck… Tactically and technique wise, I think if he ever took one of our tryouts in [SAS], he’d probably score below the no retake mark lol.

Once everyone got here, we went out to Red Lobster for diner. In my case, riding with my bro and listing to Nickelback on the way. To be honest, I think I am the _only_ one in this family that doesn’t blast music +S. It’s good music but, I kinda would like to avoid hearing damage >_>

Just like our mother, he blasts it loud as it will go… Me, if someone walks through the hallway I turn it down or mute it when I’ve got music going lol.

The nights travels

Just got home a couple of hours ago, my mothers GOD parents came down to celebrate my Birthday during their travels.

Another all you can eat night 😉

I probably shouldn’t have had a huge lunch, but I enjoy the food anyway lol.

Looks like tomorrow it will probably be me, my brother, and ma’s GOD father out bowling and then the entire family out for dinner later on. I can’t bowl worth a Russian modem but. Who knows, might be fun.

Since Ma hasn’t been included much in the plans as far a her original plans, she’s a bit pissy. I hate to say it about my seniors but I’d describe it as childish behavior :. Either way, tomorrow promises to be a full day…

I really need a vacation

BSD Forever

Well, my Darling Dixie is now running FreeBSD 7.0-Release 🙂

I finished last minute backups of files and off loaded them to Vecta, just in case hehe. Unlocked my wireless network and installed from the three CDs I have for FreeBSD 7.0-Release. Since I don’t use the CD sets to install more extras then X.Org, I only needed disk one as usual.

I almost always use a custom installation of FreeBSD because I find it more expedient and very concise. Used sysinstall to finish the last bit of configuration before the first boot: nfs client on, sshd on, dhcp on ath0, set root password.

With the first boot I mounted my backups over NFS, copied the over and unpacked for reference — rc.conf, rc.conf.local, xorg.conf, and wpa_supplicant.conf. I also setup my users and groups via pw and edited loader.conf to load my sound driver.

Merged changes as desired into rc.conf and an xorg.conf file generated via X -configure. Then copied over a small script I had made to automate installing most software I use and started a review of it while running porsnap on anohtr vtty.

While the script ran, I poked around /usr/src with vi to pass the time. All went well until I started getting funky errors from pkg_add. Killing the script, I checked with df and sure enough, / was showing at 107% of capacity! Now that all is said and done, it seems I miscalculated about 600MB of dependencies lol.

mv /root/pkgs /usr/pkgs
sh
for JUNK in `du -ch /usr/pkgs/* | grep 0B | awk '{ print $2 }'`; do rm $JUNK; done

problem solved. I also found out the hard way that the csh is a pain in the ass, hence starting a new shell to handle the removal of empty packages. Used the scroll lock to check the terminals backlog for the last successful package add and modified my script to pick up where it left off.

/usr/pkgs is 834M of packages — just in case I need to reinstall, I won’t have to download them from my $PACKAGEROOT again, I can just bring them over from Vectra and save bandwidth for both my favorite mirror and myself.

I also had a bit of a problem with some port installations failing with strange pkg-descr missing messages, found out today while wrapping up that it was referecin $PKGDIR => /usr/pkgs :.

my packing list so far:

#!/bin/sh

cd /where/ever

# environment / compat
PKGDIR="`pwd`/pkgs"; export PKGDIR
GCC_VER="42"
PHP_VER="5"
MYSQL_VER="50"
pkg_add -Kr compat6x-i386

# languages
pkg_add -Kr javavmwrapper
# manual install needed for JDK/JRE
(cd $PKGDIR; pkg_add diablo-jdk-freebsd6.i386.1.5.0.07.01.tbz)
(cd $PKGDIR; pkg_add diablo-jre-freebsd6.i386.1.5.0.07.01.tbz)
pkg_add -Kr gcc${GCC_VER}
pkg_add -Kr perl
pkg_add -Kr python
pkg_add -Kr php${PHP_VER}
pkg_add -Kr ruby
pkg_add -Kr rubygem-rtags && pkg_add -r rubygem-rake
pkg_add -Kr guile
pkg_add -Kr scheme48

# libraries
pkg_add -Kr qt4
pkg_add -Kr gtk-2
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBI
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBD-mysql${MYSQL_VER}
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBI-SQLite
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBI-CSV
pkg_add -Kr p5-Digest


# development tools
pkg_add -Kr gmake
pkg_add -Kr ctags
pkg_add -Kr cscope && pkg_add -Kr kscope
pkg_add -Kr webcpp
pkg_add -Kr subversion

# games
pkg_add -Kr kdegames
pkg_add -Kr xgalaga
pkg_add -Kr prboom
pkg_add -Kr doom-data
pkg_add -Kr wesnoth
pkg_add -Kr supertux
pkg_add -Kr chromium

# graphics software
pkg_add -Kr gimp && pkg_add -Kr gimp-gap
pkg_add -Kr inkscape
pkg_add -Kr xv
pkg_add -Kr kdegraphics
pkg_add -Kr dia

# browsers
pkg_add -Kr linux-flock
pkg_add -Kr lynx

# e-mail and news
pkg_add -Kr thunderbird && pkg_add -Kr thunderbird-i18n
pkg_add -Kr mutt

# kontact and related
pkg_add -Kr kdepim


# chat
pkg_add -Kr konversation
pkg_add -Kr pidgin && pkg_add -Kr pidgin-hotkeys
pkg_add -Kr pidgin-guifications && pkg_add -Kr pidgin-libnotify
pkg_add -Kr pidgin-otr && pkg_add -Kr pidgin-encryption
pkg_add -Kr teamspeak_client

# install vim / emacs
pkg_add -Kr emacs || pkg_add -Kr xemacs
pkg_add -Kr mg
(bunzip vim-7.1.tar.bz2; tar -C /tmp -xf vim-7.1.tar; cd /tmp/vim71/src;
./configure
--enable-perlinterp --enable-pythoninterp --enable-rubyinterp
--with-x --enable-cscope --enable-fontset --enable-gnome-check
--with-features=huge --enable-gui=gtk2 && gmake && gmake install)

# multimedia
pkg_add -Kr nspluginwrapper
pkg_add -Kr libdvdread
pkg_add -Kr libdvdplay
pkg_add -Kr libdvdnav
pkg_add -Kr cdrtools
pkg_add -Kr mplayer
pkg_add -Kr linux-mplayerplug-in
pkg_add -Kr xmms && pkg_add -Kr xmms-pipe && pkg_add -Kr xmms-skins
pkg_add -Kr k3b
# this is an rpm
(cd /usr/ports/multimedia/linux-realplayer && make install clean distclean)

# documents
pkg_add -Kr gnumeric && pkg_add -Kr abiword
pkg_add -Kr koffice

# personal
pkg_add -Kr zsh
pkg_add -Kr rxvt-unicode
pkg_add -Kr terminus-font
pkg_add -Kr windowmaker
pkg_add -Kr blackbox
pkg_add -Kr bbkeys && pkg_add -r bbrun && pkg_add -r bbpager
pkg_add -Kr docker
pkg_add -Kr hsetroot
pkg_add -Kr fastest_cvsup
pkg_add -Kr psearch

# misc
pkg_add -Kr bsdstats
pkg_add -Kr amarok
pkg_add -Kr lzma
pkg_add -Kr unrar
pkg_add -Kr zip
pkg_add -Kr e2fsprogs
pkg_add -Kr pdksh
pkg_add -Kr sudo
pkg_add -Kr v7sh
pkg_add -Kr xcb

I had to install the ports manually because of the $PKGDIR thing, did that this afternoon. Which amounted to multimedia/libdvdcss, x11-wm/fvwm-devel, sysutils/gkrellm2, and just for the heck of it, www/linux-flashplugin9 and www/flashplugin-mozilla hehe. I also had the JDK and JRE packages in cold storage from my last installation, so no need for manual fetching them.

Some last minute additions were gdm and trayer — I actually like Gnomes Display Manager. I still need to compile mencoder, maybe install a few Perl/Python/Ruby binndings for good measure, etc but I’m basically done.

One thing that shocked me, The flash plugin v9 is working !!! I installed it just to see if the thing would crash my webbrowser but it works :

I need to get pf, sshd, and my kernel configuration setup and probably play with freebsd-update (I’ve never used it) but I’m essentially ready to rock and roll, it only took about 4 hours, because I downloaded all of the packages I wanted.

Compared to reinstalling Windows XP? Hahahahhahahahah !!!!

If I ever reformated my XP machine, it would take 3 hours to install XP from the vendors disks, 2 weeks to download all of the hotfixes, updates, and patches and crap, reinstall my firewall and ruleset from backup, then systematically install all of my games, programs, and such by manually visiting each website or inserting each disk — then spend time re-shoehorning XP into something livable with all of the little setting tweaks here and there.

FreeBSD, back online in a flash — hehe.

Map making time?

Spent 90% of the day working on trying to make The [SAS] Kill House Redux map a reality. I’m a couple months ahead of schedule so far, most of Level 1A is complete and who knows what will become of Level 1B… hehe.

I think the hardest thing probably has been the lighting, it has to be reasonably realistic. But at the same time, it really would help to not need a flash light just to see the weapon in your hands >_>. When you ain’t got one to choose from design wise, ya never realize how useful windows really are !!!

Level 1A is pretty simple, spawn point, ~30m long hallway ending in a T-Junction. And a number of small to large rooms; exploring center doors, corner doors, threat points, multiple entries, etc. In a very basic manor, just perfect for basic training work. Level 2A, is meant to be more of a “simulation” environment then a clean room.

Decorating the spawn point, since most of Level 1A is meant to be unfurnished was kind of fun. The desks are kind of personalized to my tastes hehe. I also put a sign up which I feel fits quite well in several meanings of it, only I know them all ^_^.

Just for the heck of it, I’m considering putting in a secret room… Hey, why not have an office or something hehehe.

I’m looking forward to Level 2A and the challenge involved but joining my teammates in training on it will be sweeter still.

Recent activities.

Havn’t had a lot of spare time lately :

Survived my 20th birthday on the 20th, makes me wonder if I’m starting to get old in my own way lol.

My brother called and wished me a happy birthday, was good to talk with him even if I had to put up with a ‘lecture’ 8=). I know the old axim is “those who can’t do, teach” but in my families case it is lecture >_>.

Night before my birthday I managed to polish off one of my favorite burgers from Ruby Tuesdays. I remember the first time I had one, hehe a few years back I was the only guy involved in a project. So the girls had to throw a birthday party and what else but The Ultimate Colossal Burger xD

They always did know how to throw a party lol.

Ma also made 2lbs of Chili, so I’ve been feasting on that for the past couple days, hmm now that I think of it.. A little chili would hit the spot about now ;).

I spent most of my birthday eating, sleeping, and coding — three good things, especially since sleep is a premium for me +S. I ain’t done much of anything in C++ in about 3 years, sad considering November will be my fourth anniversary. But I’ve really been enjoying the C++/Qt4 work of late, even better I’ve got suitable development environments on my laptop and desktop. Lunch was a trip to the best all you can eat joint in town, so that went well hehe.

Still, it’s all overshadowed by one thing… But I guess that’s a different subject.

I’ve managed to get a bit of training in this weekend, been concentrating on the fundamentals of room clearing for Jonsi’s training. One nice thing about teaching it, I’ve been doing it enough in the virtual world, that I parts of it flow into the real world lol.

Ok, so is it that bad if you tend to stack on doors and button-hook entries ? haha

Started work today on a diagram for a new swat4 map, The [SAS] Killhouse Redux. I’ve got over 25 rooms and two floors with concepts for adding another wing on the first floor. What I like the most about the design, it’s trivial to build it in bits and pieces. Level 1As first wing, then the other wing or Level 2A, etc. My original “dream” for the ultimate training facility included like a 5-6 floor shooting house but no map maker got into the project.

The only big problem is me and the Unreal Editor used mix like water and oil. I should be happy though, as crappy as SwatEd is it really is less bothersome then the UnrealEd build shipped with Raven Shield. Although I’m more used to the Rvs build… At least the S4 one doesn’t crash so often!

I can do almost anything I set my mind to, it’s just a matter of time. Tomorrow I need to inhale one of the tutorials and set to work on more of the map. The main problem atm is adjusting the objectives, although I reckon I could always make a room in the middle of no where full of tangos lol. The old [SAS] Killhouse in RvS that we used to use before I even got here, had a lone tango hidden behind boxes. But that was more so because of issues with the game design, Swat4 is a little less, ehh irksome.

Today I also got some time on the SWAT4:TSS server for the first time in a good while, I really miss that game lol. The only bad thing I can say, is the MP5s don’t support full auto. I’d rather have a trusty MP5N but hey, the devs had to make it more ‘balanced’ :. The UMP.45 fires at about 300 RPM on their own scale and on full auto, while the MP5 is limited to three round bursts as respective alternatives to semi automatic.

I really prefer full auto because I can control the bursts. In RvS, I often like to use the MP5/10A2 because the way it was implemented. You can’t hit shit past about 30 metres and if you fire more then 2 rounds at a time, you won’t (consistantly) hit shit to start with ! The FAMAS G2 also has such a high rate of fire, that it’s great fun to put on full auto and try to fire one round from it per trigger pull.

SWAT4 has one of the worst simulations of ballistics I’ve ever seen but, Rvs has good shooting but the worlds most unreal physics.

Tomorrows plans, map making and training ops. With how long it’s been since I’ve really played SWAT4, I think I should take some drill time to work on my usual reflexive plan.

3-round burst to centre mass then follow up with a double tap or another burst to the noggin.

Me, I fire a lot of rounds per kill — because I keep firing till the f****er goes down. The advantage of video games is, once they die they start to fall over dead (realistically or not). The disadvantage is unlike the real world, getting shot doesn’t have much effect on the enemy. At the best you might jar their shots (rvs) or stun them briefly (swat4) for another follow up shot.

What I really would love to do some day, is set up sensors on the monitor and a laser pointer on a model weapon. And have the sensors on the screen detect the movements of the laser beam across their own beams and use that to generate mouse movement-input for the operating system.

That would make aiming a lot more reflexive then a mouse lol.