by

Dropped off around 0630 last ngiht :

Spent msot of it hacking on the SOP Rewrites and chatting with friends. The room clearing section is quite difficult, it needs to be sufficantly normalized which is a sticky operation. Trying to balance between short and sweet with completeness makes managing its verbosity a tricky one to.

I also spent some time doing a little translation work. I quite like trying to translate small portions of text between English and German, because it gives me a chance to get a greater feel for the language. You’ve got to learn to think a different way when using another language, I generally try to be as accurate as I can but enjoy the ‘soft spots’ where the idea becomes clear but, trying to put express it in the other language is hard.

I would love some day, the opportunity to learn it in a lot more depth. I’m generally able to read well enough when I have a dictionary to help, but… Trying to express things well is a bit more challenging. It takes time and experience to learn a languages grammer. It’s not quite like learning a programming language… Given decent documentation I generally can pick up most common programming languages in an hour or two depending on it’s size, I especially love it when some kind of Backus–Naur Form (BNF) listing is available, makes learning a programming language much faster lol.

Conventional languages for people on the other hand, ain’t quite so simple :

by

I’ve had a special briefing to give, a Rct to train with, two SNCOs to join int he shoot house for a few things, a ban/unban issue, yukes live op that almost launched, finishing [most of] my auditing and tending to a few site matters, and setting up a reminder should any thing remaining slip my mind.

I’m finishing my report and the last of my work for the day if I’ve gotta lock myself in a closet to do it >_>

Hopefully this time I won’t be working on it at 0500Q lol.

by

The good news, I’ve got the first draft done on my report (yay!), the bad news is it is 0550Q and I’m less tired then I was at 1300Q loool. All that is less I guess is one or two more sections that I need to write.

One thing I really need to do is start organizing more of my common things into packages, I freaking love TeX :-).

Also good news is I’ve gotten auth for putting TeX Live PBI’s on their testing server so that means I can get cracking on field testing it here, then start trying to push it on to PBIDir.

With luck, tomorrow might be a SWAT4 Live Op so I’ll have time finish work on the site and get some more interesting work done too xD.

I was trained in Rvs, I took that route for the Selection Course and wouldn’t change that decision for any thing. But I do rather feel at home with SWAT4. I’ve been playing S4 since the beta and bought the game shortly after it came out. The thing I dislike about RvS is the door bugs, SWAT4.. Hey some suspects might draw faster then Jesse James but at least they eventually go down when you shoot them, can’t say the same for Raven Shields occasional super tangos dancing between bullets ^_^.

What pisses me off is I paid $50 for SWAT4, $30 for SWAT4:TSS and SWAT4:TSS although it is an expansion pack is implemented through the (very shitty compared to SWAT3s) mod system, which is probably the ONLY reason they ever released the SDK. Because the change in dev-teams meant a need for a quick way of hacking in the other 40% of the freaking game!

What a company…

by

Oy…

Set to work on preparing my report, down to the AFK again the second half a butt cheek is in the chair level of interruptions as normal 8=). Finally took a break for dinner, a nice double whammy of Whoppers

BK Whopper

Crashed on the couch for awhile until Coco finally succeeded in guilting me out of my spot, jeeze it’s only been _my_ spot for the last decade ^_^.

Dropped off to bed, never made it through most of Mission To Mars and woke up ~0300 in search of some Raspberry Danish.

May as well get back to work eh?

Some times I wonder if I ever sleep without being ready to drop :

task.done() ? rest : work;

by

Not an overly busy day compared to the last few but the tiredness is catching up. Current plan of action is 5-10min to lay down and then start getting to work on things.

I need to finish evaluating things, start preparing my report, and get things done as necessary lol. I’ve also got a related appointment for this weekend so I’ve noted that my report should be considered due by Monday.

Managed to get in server for some SWAT4, *finally* game time this week. Only had time for two or three rounds though, got to move through on Point and First Cover positions. Been awhile since I’ve done any serious point work, much of my time as SSM/RSM had me in EL’s boots lol. Glad to see I’m still effective though, was able to keep a dynamic pace as Point with an MP5 and as First Cover with the M4A1 and still keep accuracy up.

Firing the M4A1 in SWAT4 when on the move is not very hard but takes practice to do it, gotta learn to control and manage the weapon. The recoil in the game is unrealistically appalling but it makes taking threats out as you move to your Point of Domination a little more challenging then in Rvs or using one of the SMGs.

It’s also nice to see how far one of our new Troopers have come, Big12… He’s come a long way since the first day he set foot in our server hehe.

It’s just the way I am I guess, work a bit, game a bit, work more. When I’ve got a big task list it tends to weigh on my mind to much to spend an entire day off totally lol.

Today also is my Fathers birthday, he was born in 1946 iirc so it would have been his 62nd.

Happy birthday Dad 😉

by

Been in my usually hyper-jumping multi-tasking state as usual.

I’ve had enough IM windows open simultaneously of late between friends, business, and other matters to be aiming for a new personal record. It’s a good thing I didn’t expect to get much done as Virtual WO1 on day 1 or day 2 looool.

Some times my systems load is light, at the least I usually will have a web browser, instant messenger, and a command prompt open some where (local or network). Other times even on my desktops 1600×1200 resolution screen space can be hard to get hehe.

That’s just the way I am though, I’m usually avail about 14-18 hours a day or more depending on working hours lol. Most people know, don’t call me, messenger me ! One thing I do love about IMs over phone calls is you don’t have to respond instantly, and you the message buffer handles incomings between AFK spikes… It’s sort of necessary with the way life at home is lol.

A few things on my agenda are already in the works… Most of which do to with things with the new AoR in [SAS] and the SOP Rewrites. You could say taking over a larger scope of things calls with it a bit of nose poking around hehe. With the SOPs I’ve been trying to get work done & keep the RSM informed.

Another thing I would like to do is find some time to learn Perls OO features. I’m no real fan of Object Oriented programming although I believe it is just a means of doing the right things a certain way. In this case it really is just the simple fact that I don’t know much about Perls Object Oriented syntax and I’m not interested in waiting for Perl6 to learn it lol.

For me Perl is getting to be kind of like an old friend in the tool chest, like a trusty hammer or a favorite screw driver. I often find my self using Python, Perl, and Ruby for scripting tasks or random programming that I either can’t use some thing else for or just don’t have time/energy for using another language for.

And for languages and tools I often put to work, I like to know them like a well read book 😉

What can I say but I love to learn!

by

Having dived down the rabbit hole an RSM and landed a Warrant Officer Class 1 in Wonderland, I know the red pill was the best choice.

I’m not really sorry to see the RSMs post go, it is really a lot less to worry about. I still have responsibilities but of a different nature, the one thing I really do like about the WO1 task set is the potentional jack of all trades nature it holds.

Some people don’t do things by halves, including me. I know many things but am master of few, yet I often study well beyond my skill sets own domain.

I’ve been transferring as many files as I think relivent over to our new RSM but I havn’t had time to formally report for my own orders yet. Now being the most healthy one here I’m stuck on the on call every 2 minutes at the drop of a pin instead of ht emore normal 5 minutes :-(. First time I’ve seen my mother throwing up in almost 20 years, whether she has a cold or not I know I’m only with allergies. Ended up with blood in the output of one of my allergy attacks today, not sure if that is a good sign or a bad sign but I know one thing — my sinuses feel a hell of a lot better !

With luck the down time won’t be to much… I’m usually like a butler around this house any way :. I’m not exactly the best person for the job imho but there is no other course of action. What would my family do if I didn’t act the way I do…. lol.

Dixie reborn

by

and a return to KDE, version 3.5.8 while I’m at it

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

I find the lipstick style that PC-BSD uses by default a little yucky to stare at all day so I set it to my favorite (Keramik). I have installed a ton of colour schemes off kde-look.org but hate most of them….. One that I found was essentially an emulation of Ubuntu’s “Human” setup, which I do like very much or else I wouldn’t be using a modified form of it.

The colour scheme and GTK+ widgets is actually the only good thing I can say about Ubuntu 6.06 when I tested it last year. At first I thought I might try a custom colour scheme with a red title bar, give KDE a nice little FreeBSD flair 😉 But I couldn’t get a shade of red that I could live with, like using, and not be distracted by in the same colour. PC-BSDs default window decor, ‘Crystal’ didn’t match well with the human colour scheme so I changed it repeatidly trying to find one that did match well and I could live with. I couldn’t find one I liked, so as usual I wound up with Keramik haha. No matter what I do I always find that window decore attractive 0.o. I also installed the Human_KDE icon set to match the human colour scheme.

I copied over the KMenu and Konqueror icons from PC-BSDs default theme into a copy of Human_KDE and I made a clone of the Human colour scheme. Then changed the desired portion of the title bar to use PC-BSDs default colours for it instead, adding some contrast. I loved the match up and it is much more appeasing to my eyes 🙂

A bit of both muahuaha !

As far as the screen shot, the background is my ‘choice picture of the day’, rxvt-unicode is running and displays a listing of my home directory and the system versioning. Normally my desktop is some what dominated by a terminal emulator and a web browser with a few IM windows for icing on the cake. Below urxvt is linux-flock open to a live journal page. Lower left hand corner is XMMS blasting music while the lower right hand corner is a ‘KasBar’ which provides a replacement for the usual taskbar. While still giving me some thing similar to how Window Maker solves the problem hehe. There are no icons on the desktop only the panel.

I placed the main panel on top because with a laptop + touch pad I find it easier to use and more comfortable on my eyes with the widescreen display. From left to right on the top panel there is the K-Menu button, System [folders] Menu, Settings Menu, Web Browser (flock), Terminal (~/sh/urxvt big), Network Folders, the system tray applet which shows PC-BSDs battery monitor, Klipper the clibboard app I wish Windows XP had, KMix (volume/mixer control), PC-BSDs update manager, KOrganizer (which may be getting the ax soon), Pidgin (AIM/MSN/YIM/ICQ/XMPP chat), and Konversation (IRC). Over to the righter’ side is a desktop pager, lock/logout buttons, and a clocklet.

I feel the system has a bit of a Gnome / Ubuntu look and feel to it but I’m finding it quite comfortable. Because I like the pleasant feel of it plus it matches my work flow while still being KDE3 and FreeBSD powered instead xD.

by

Well after a bit of work the system is now fully operational and I can pass out >_>

Managed to get to bed at a nice early post 0415, only for a crazy set of dreams. I dreamed that my allergies were so bad I could barely breath and my throat so dry it was choking me to death. Yet as much water as I drank, it was as if it never touched my tongue :

It’s kind of strange but when I dream, I usually know I’m dreaming pretty quickly so I wasn’t afraid just uncomfortable.

Transition to leading a SEAL team on an dockside assault with an M4 in hand and MP5 slung. Sent the team below while I took down the ships bridge, left the ‘abnormal’ terrorist leader with a few 9x19mm in the head after I figured out a way around the personal engey shield and regrouped.
Some talk about a dead mans switch and time to evacuate. The SEAL team pulled out while I went to check on the status of the lower level, only to find the NSA and Nurses tending to the hostages.

Transition yet again to being stuck in the middle of the desert with just a pistol in each hand, Tomb Raider style and a bet on who makes it out of their first. Only to end up with a psycho-path trying to get there first, a fairly attractive brunette in toe but horriabley useless in a gun fight in the race to the LZ lol.

Dang man, I have strange dreams lol.

My allergies have not been to bad today but I haven’t eaten much all day… There is nothing to take, even the stuff that comes most highly recommended doesn’t do squat. Most of them are just 10mg of loratadine which is pretty useless IMHO. With the way I’ve been feeling I think a decongestant might be helpful but not exactly worth the price tag. I can’t wait for winter to come back !!!!!!!!!

I’ve spent most of my time working on the laptop and chatting with friends. Still havn’t gotten much done today of productive use. Next on my list is restoring TeX Live from backup which I can do tonight. If Martínez ever gets back to me about the PBI Testing ftp server I might be able to get a TeX Live PBI set ready to rock & roll, it’s a little to freaking big for any of the places I have storage on >_>. Once a working PBI is out, I can try and see what I can do about making a port of it once the PBI’s out of my hair.

Reinstalling all the software

by

still to do:

mencoder -> build from source
konverter -> I still ain’t used it but want it installed just in case
linux-flock -> from ports (rpm)
linux-realplayer -> from ports (rpm)
linux-mplayerplug-in -> install after flock
libdvdcss -> build from source
portupgrade -> needed for Neo Ports Manager development (it’s the backend)
emacs or xemacs -> from source, rarly use emacs but I like to have a fat and micro sized emacsen installed.

Ports/Packages that PC-BSD actually saves me time on are perl, python, ruby, gtk2, subversion, kdegames, xv, kdegraphics, kdepim, libdvdread, libdvdnav, cdrtools, mplayer, and X.Org 😉

I’ve been using Window Maker for a long time now, I think I’ll go back to KDE3 for awhile. I’ve always liked using KDE3, even though I love Window Maker hehe. I’ve thought about switching to a less ‘common’ window manager as well but lack the time to RTFM and bend it to my wishes, especially since the ones that interest me can be quite keyboard driven hehe. I can use just about any window manager but I’m partial to Window Maker, the Box family, KDE, and Gnome. The only window manager I’ve used that I don’t like, depending on what one considers ‘explorer.exe’ any way ^_^ is TWM, I used to use it over VNC to my test machine back in the PC-BSD 1.0RC2 days… I find it very much less then pretty. I don’t care much for FVWM1/2 and most of it’s variants either but would prefer them to TWM for using 24 * 7 * 365 ! Oh and I also have to reinstall TeX Live 2007 but that I have backed up to beat the bands hehe.

All that is left for tonight is to configure and build Vim before I hit the hay.

./configure –with-features=big –with-x –enable-gui=gtk2 –enable-xfontsel –enable-rubyinterp –enable-pythoninterp –enable-perlinterp –enable-cscope && gmake -j4 && gmake install

Technically all I could leave it as –with-features big and –enable-gui=gtk2 but I usually su[pply the other args to the configure script instictively.

Tomorrow I can finish installing the remaining apps since most of it is just waiting on me to install a ports tree. I also need to get the NFS/SMB shares sorted on Vectra & SAL1600, look up my ICQ# as it seems I lost both my KDM Theme and Pidgin settings by lack of forsite :-(. No matter, I actually like the more Gnome’ish PC-BSD KDM theme lol. I also remember the logins for my AIM/M$N/Y!M/XMPP so that one is not a big problem hehe.

And of course as always to playfully mold KDE to match my work flow, muhauahuaha !

/*
* list of software I’ve installed tonight:
*/

// languages
gcc43 // including the GNU Compiler for Java
javavmwrapper, JRE, and JDK
rubygem-rtags
rubygem-rake
guile
scheme48

// libraries
Qt4

// development tools
gmake // needed for vim, gtk+, qt3/4, and my tex makefiles
ctags // extended multi-language ctags, *BSD has a C based one
cscope and kscope
webcpp

// games
xgalaga
prboom with freeware doom-data
wesnoth

// graphics software
gimp with animation package (gimp-gap)
inkscape

// browsers
lynx

// local mail clients just in case
thunderbird
thunderbird-i18n
mutt

// chat
konversation // worlds best irc client
pidgin // aim/msn/yim/icq/etc
pidgin-hotkeys
pidgin-guifications
pidgin-libnotify
pidgin-otr
pidgin-encryption
teamspeak_client // linux version

// multimedia
libdvdplay
xmms
xmms-skins
xmms-pipe // control xmms from a named pipe

// documents
gnumeric
abiword
koffice

// personal
zsh
docker
rxvt-unicode
terminus-font
mg // micro gnu emacs, openbsds alterntive to vi