Big Brother is watching you
I just read the first few pages of Orwell's book 1984 and this is what I think of it so far. The character, Winston, is who I've been introduced to. He's just come home from work and poured himself a glass of "Victory Gin". He's about to smoke a "Victory Cigarrette" and is about to write in an illegal diary. Well, nothing is illegal, as they say, in this society as there are no laws. But possession of such a thing would surely result in his punishment by either death or 25 years hard labour.
His apartment has a single camera mounted in it. The government is watching and listening to him at any given time. The same to all its citizens. Winston is about to write in his journal and is not sure who he's writing to. He writes a date, April 4th 1984, but is not sure if that's the correct year. Nobody knows for sure what the correct date, plus or minus a year, is any more. He decides to write about the movies he watched the night before.
It appears the government entertains its people with movies of war. Winston writes gleefully of witnessing a massacre of refugees; seeing a frightened man, viewed through the gun-barrels of a helicopter, shot full of holes while swimming away from the helicopter. Another of a woman in a boat full of children trying to calm her son, holding her arms around him as if that were enough to protect them from the bullets. And if that weren't enough, the 20 kg bomb dropped onto the boat would do them in. And he recalls a particular shot of a childs arm propelled into the air falling just short of a helicopters rotors.
Some society to live in. And this all within the first few pages of the book. Sounds like a book I should read, maybe not a happy book, but an important one none-the-less.
-When does Emmanuel Goldstein get introduced
Friday, August 05, 2005
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
girlfriends birthday
Happy Birthday!!
I know you wanted one of these:
and we will. We'll get one when we've got the time and space. Happy birthday, sweetheart.
-Lots of love, from your guy.
I know you wanted one of these:
and we will. We'll get one when we've got the time and space. Happy birthday, sweetheart.
-Lots of love, from your guy.
Monday, August 01, 2005
xmodmap thinger
Buttons with my laptop
I found a nice little config to get the volume control buttons working on my laptop. Note, this config file will probably only work on an HP zv5320, but the way to set up the config to automatically run after every reboot will probably be a help to you. The help came from this page particularly, so thanks a lot to the author.
Create a file called .Xmodmap in your home directory
> sudo emacs /home/user/.Xmodmap
and add these lines
---
Problem was, I couldn't get the script to load up every time the computer rebooted. I would have to load the script via
> xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
in order for the buttons to work again. You can imagine that it would suck to havae to do that every time. I don't know because I have it set to do it automatically. Here's what I did (and no other way worked for me, I tried quite a few). So now is where this works for anybody on any system, at least that's the aim. To run the command xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap at the beginning of every session, instead of manually typing it into a terminal yourself, add the following to the end of your .bash_profile from your home directory
if [ -f ~/.Xmodmap ]; then
xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
fi
save the .bash_profile and you should be good to go.
-bash_profile is good for everything! (at least lots of things)
I found a nice little config to get the volume control buttons working on my laptop. Note, this config file will probably only work on an HP zv5320, but the way to set up the config to automatically run after every reboot will probably be a help to you. The help came from this page particularly, so thanks a lot to the author.
Create a file called .Xmodmap in your home directory
> sudo emacs /home/user/.Xmodmap
and add these lines
---
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolumeAgain, it's only going to work for an HP zv5320 laptop.
keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
keycode 178 = XF86HomePage
keycode 223 = XF86Standby
keycode 162 = XF86AudioPlay
keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop
keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev
keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext
---
Problem was, I couldn't get the script to load up every time the computer rebooted. I would have to load the script via
> xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
in order for the buttons to work again. You can imagine that it would suck to havae to do that every time. I don't know because I have it set to do it automatically. Here's what I did (and no other way worked for me, I tried quite a few). So now is where this works for anybody on any system, at least that's the aim. To run the command xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap at the beginning of every session, instead of manually typing it into a terminal yourself, add the following to the end of your .bash_profile from your home directory
if [ -f ~/.Xmodmap ]; then
xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
fi
save the .bash_profile and you should be good to go.
-bash_profile is good for everything! (at least lots of things)
Friday, July 29, 2005
changing ips
Changing IPs
The computer I use in my office at school has this habit of renewing its IP every time it reboots. It's not the computers fault, it's network services fault for not giving static IPs to the computers. My biggest problem with that is I can never figure out what the new IP is without a little bit of work. Well, no more! It's easy from here on out.
The solution was simple. Have the computer email me the new IP every time it reboots itself. And since it's emailed to me, I can access that from anywhere as well. Here's how it's done.
I wanted to edit/create the S99local script in /etc/rc2.d
In my case, I had to create it.
> ls /etc/rc2.d
comes up with a whole lot of S* scripts. I didn't see the S99local so I created it.
> sudo emacs /etc/rc2.d/S99local
and wrote the following
------
#!bin/sh
ifconfig | grep inet | mail -s "new IP for work computer" myEmailAddress@theHost.something
end
------
The above is a shell script, that's why it starts with #!bin/sh and the rest is kind of self explanitory. And if not, just know that it does work.
I then changed the file via
> sudo chmod a+x S99local
so it can be run by the shell. Now every time the system restarts it emails the new IP to my gmail account. That makes it a lot easier than how I was doing it. I used to scan the whole university computer system looking for computers with an open ssh port 22. I'd pipe the information to a text file and pull out entries with 'open ssh' and try to SSH my account on there. That took a while because there are a lot of computers on the system with an open port 22.
-Much easier now
The computer I use in my office at school has this habit of renewing its IP every time it reboots. It's not the computers fault, it's network services fault for not giving static IPs to the computers. My biggest problem with that is I can never figure out what the new IP is without a little bit of work. Well, no more! It's easy from here on out.
The solution was simple. Have the computer email me the new IP every time it reboots itself. And since it's emailed to me, I can access that from anywhere as well. Here's how it's done.
I wanted to edit/create the S99local script in /etc/rc2.d
In my case, I had to create it.
> ls /etc/rc2.d
comes up with a whole lot of S* scripts. I didn't see the S99local so I created it.
> sudo emacs /etc/rc2.d/S99local
and wrote the following
------
#!bin/sh
ifconfig | grep inet | mail -s "new IP for work computer" myEmailAddress@theHost.something
end
------
The above is a shell script, that's why it starts with #!bin/sh and the rest is kind of self explanitory. And if not, just know that it does work.
I then changed the file via
> sudo chmod a+x S99local
so it can be run by the shell. Now every time the system restarts it emails the new IP to my gmail account. That makes it a lot easier than how I was doing it. I used to scan the whole university computer system looking for computers with an open ssh port 22. I'd pipe the information to a text file and pull out entries with 'open ssh' and try to SSH my account on there. That took a while because there are a lot of computers on the system with an open port 22.
-Much easier now
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
You suck education is not for you
You suck. Education is above you
So I got a reply in the mail today telling me I suck and my education will not be offered me this year. Well, in a nutshell that's what it said.
I applied for my student loan, filled out all my applications to specification. Had my girlfriend fill out her spousal form to send it all away. Got my reply and it said, "You should have enough money saved and enough money from your girlfriend over the course of the year that you can pay for school yourself. Kthxbye."
So now I get $0 for my student loan and don't know what's going to happen. I'm sure I'll still go, but I'll be getting my money more inconveniently.
-Stupid government
So I got a reply in the mail today telling me I suck and my education will not be offered me this year. Well, in a nutshell that's what it said.
I applied for my student loan, filled out all my applications to specification. Had my girlfriend fill out her spousal form to send it all away. Got my reply and it said, "You should have enough money saved and enough money from your girlfriend over the course of the year that you can pay for school yourself. Kthxbye."
So now I get $0 for my student loan and don't know what's going to happen. I'm sure I'll still go, but I'll be getting my money more inconveniently.
-Stupid government
awakechocolate
Awake now
Augustus Gloop looks like he has been created with the help of a computer. The movie was awesome. Tim Burton plays off Charlie like he has a dark secret love of hurting others. Sadistic, maybe. The only movie to leave such an impression on me in a long time.
-Great fun
Augustus Gloop looks like he has been created with the help of a computer. The movie was awesome. Tim Burton plays off Charlie like he has a dark secret love of hurting others. Sadistic, maybe. The only movie to leave such an impression on me in a long time.
-Great fun
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
antisomething
Working it at work without an internet connection
Started writing the paper for my simulation. Haven't gotten very far with it. Kinda wrote up a placeholder abstract section. Wrote up the beginning of an introduction and have the groundwork done for my model section. The bones are there, but the skin is at a minimal appearance and is giving off a faint corpse-ish odor. Oh, and my professor wants draft number one on her desk by the end of today. So that must mean she wants me to either email it to her so she can print it off some time tonight. Or she wants me to print it off and submit it before I leave work. If I email it, it'll be because I think I've got time to work on it tonight. In such a case, it'll be better than it would be if I submitted it at the end of work. However, if I submit it at the end of work, it'll be slightly crappier than if I submitted it tonight. I don't know what the hurry is. I'd rather work on it for a week so it wasn't so poorly constructed.
-But she's asking for it.
The reason I'd submit it before I go home
I'm hoping to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tonight. I've seen the previews, I've placed a screenshot of the film on my desktop, I've sneaked peeks of the film. I have not, however, read the book. I'm going to add that to my reading list right now.
-Try a blade! Oh, please do. Please do!
Book worm
I'm reading the new Harry Potter book. This one is supposed to be the most depressing of the series (the rest were good). And I guess I haven't come to that part yet, it's a pretty good read so far. I wasn't going to buy it, but it was scheduled to be released with an MSRT of ~$40 so when I saw the hard cover for $20 I had to buy it. Now I just need books 4 and 5 and I'll have the whole current set.
I'll be reading Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) by George Orwell, next. Oh, shoot. I just remembered, I've got a book due back at the town library today. I'd borrowed Kevin Mitnick's "The Art of Deception". I guess I'll extend the loan and return it when I find time.
Harrison Bergeron is another story I'd like to read again. It was one of those short reading assignments you get in something like 10th grade English. Was an alright read back then, so I'll see how it compares to reading it now that I'm older.
-Anti evil governmentarianorsomethinglikethatism
Bad place of girlfriend's work
Once again my girlfriend is being booted around at work. Well, they're trying, anyway. But she's not giving in, so good for her. The new manager girl started yesterday, she was supposed to close the store last night. My girlfriend was to work 9-5. Well, when she got to the store the new manager girl (who, remember, was hired the same day as my girlfriend) was already there. And on top of that, the new assistant manager (the girl who used to undeservedly be the manager, but has now taken my girlfriends job) says "Oh, you're closing now. Check your (in-store) email". An email that you can't check outside the store, but is only accessible on the company intranet. Evidently there was no email there. Go figure, dumbasses. My girl fought, she said she was working her scheduled time (there was nowhere else that said she was scheduled otherwise). She got the boss guy involved, too, and he settled with her. Good for her, I'm proud of her. Only another week in this store, anyway. And we've got to find another place to move to closer to her work and mine.
-Quick, like a bunny.
Started writing the paper for my simulation. Haven't gotten very far with it. Kinda wrote up a placeholder abstract section. Wrote up the beginning of an introduction and have the groundwork done for my model section. The bones are there, but the skin is at a minimal appearance and is giving off a faint corpse-ish odor. Oh, and my professor wants draft number one on her desk by the end of today. So that must mean she wants me to either email it to her so she can print it off some time tonight. Or she wants me to print it off and submit it before I leave work. If I email it, it'll be because I think I've got time to work on it tonight. In such a case, it'll be better than it would be if I submitted it at the end of work. However, if I submit it at the end of work, it'll be slightly crappier than if I submitted it tonight. I don't know what the hurry is. I'd rather work on it for a week so it wasn't so poorly constructed.
-But she's asking for it.
The reason I'd submit it before I go home
I'm hoping to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tonight. I've seen the previews, I've placed a screenshot of the film on my desktop, I've sneaked peeks of the film. I have not, however, read the book. I'm going to add that to my reading list right now.
-Try a blade! Oh, please do. Please do!
Book worm
I'm reading the new Harry Potter book. This one is supposed to be the most depressing of the series (the rest were good). And I guess I haven't come to that part yet, it's a pretty good read so far. I wasn't going to buy it, but it was scheduled to be released with an MSRT of ~$40 so when I saw the hard cover for $20 I had to buy it. Now I just need books 4 and 5 and I'll have the whole current set.
I'll be reading Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) by George Orwell, next. Oh, shoot. I just remembered, I've got a book due back at the town library today. I'd borrowed Kevin Mitnick's "The Art of Deception". I guess I'll extend the loan and return it when I find time.
Harrison Bergeron is another story I'd like to read again. It was one of those short reading assignments you get in something like 10th grade English. Was an alright read back then, so I'll see how it compares to reading it now that I'm older.
-Anti evil governmentarianorsomethinglikethatism
Bad place of girlfriend's work
Once again my girlfriend is being booted around at work. Well, they're trying, anyway. But she's not giving in, so good for her. The new manager girl started yesterday, she was supposed to close the store last night. My girlfriend was to work 9-5. Well, when she got to the store the new manager girl (who, remember, was hired the same day as my girlfriend) was already there. And on top of that, the new assistant manager (the girl who used to undeservedly be the manager, but has now taken my girlfriends job) says "Oh, you're closing now. Check your (in-store) email". An email that you can't check outside the store, but is only accessible on the company intranet. Evidently there was no email there. Go figure, dumbasses. My girl fought, she said she was working her scheduled time (there was nowhere else that said she was scheduled otherwise). She got the boss guy involved, too, and he settled with her. Good for her, I'm proud of her. Only another week in this store, anyway. And we've got to find another place to move to closer to her work and mine.
-Quick, like a bunny.
Monday, July 25, 2005
soylent
Soylent Green is people!
So I went into the movie knowing the secret, I wasn't in suspense as I suppose I was supposed to be (heh, suppose supposed). Since I knew the Green's secret I spent the movie wondering when it was going to finally be revealed. And when the secret was 'finally revealed' it was kind of anti-climactic to me.
Look at is this way, the old people in the library find out the secret. Now couldn't the secret just be that Soylent Green is made in the same factory that disposes of bodies? Who says Soylent Green has to be made of people. Maybe this 2022 year New York is full of sensitive people who think that may be unsanitary. Maybe that's why Simonsen agrees he must die, he feels guilty about the sanitation issues. And Sol, he has lived long enough; maybe he is at conflict with the idea that Soylent Green is manufactured in the same building that disposes of corpses.
When Thorn breaks into the disposal/green factory does he in fact see the bodies being processed into Soylent Green? No, he sees the bodies being disposed of in an industrial waste bin (you see them at your local sewage plant, the rotating poop-spray thing). Next Thorn finds a conveyor belt pushing along the soylent product. But nowhere do we see the bodies being turned into paste and squished into green, square crackers.
I think it's purely supposition. We're to believe Soylent Green is people. However, the end of the movie contradicts that to me. I see the world as believing Thorn is a bit crazy by this point. He does not have solid proof the product is made of human flesh. Throw a couple extra scenes in there and that could be the final nail in the coffin.
-That's what I'd like to see
So I went into the movie knowing the secret, I wasn't in suspense as I suppose I was supposed to be (heh, suppose supposed). Since I knew the Green's secret I spent the movie wondering when it was going to finally be revealed. And when the secret was 'finally revealed' it was kind of anti-climactic to me.
Look at is this way, the old people in the library find out the secret. Now couldn't the secret just be that Soylent Green is made in the same factory that disposes of bodies? Who says Soylent Green has to be made of people. Maybe this 2022 year New York is full of sensitive people who think that may be unsanitary. Maybe that's why Simonsen agrees he must die, he feels guilty about the sanitation issues. And Sol, he has lived long enough; maybe he is at conflict with the idea that Soylent Green is manufactured in the same building that disposes of corpses.
When Thorn breaks into the disposal/green factory does he in fact see the bodies being processed into Soylent Green? No, he sees the bodies being disposed of in an industrial waste bin (you see them at your local sewage plant, the rotating poop-spray thing). Next Thorn finds a conveyor belt pushing along the soylent product. But nowhere do we see the bodies being turned into paste and squished into green, square crackers.
I think it's purely supposition. We're to believe Soylent Green is people. However, the end of the movie contradicts that to me. I see the world as believing Thorn is a bit crazy by this point. He does not have solid proof the product is made of human flesh. Throw a couple extra scenes in there and that could be the final nail in the coffin.
-That's what I'd like to see
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Friday, July 22, 2005
bash scripting
Write a bash script and use it from any directory
I wrote up a simple bash script that automates creating a .java file template the way I like my java programs laid out. What I wanted to do was be able to use this bash script from any directory. From my /home/username directory I had created another directory /home/username/scripts that is intended to house any scripts I write up.
It is simple enough to write a bash script and access it from any directory via
> bash /home/username/scripts/theScript args
but I wanted something simpler. Something like
> theScript args
And here's how it's done. You have written a script (theScript) and placed it in your /home/username/scripts directory. Now change the permission of the script
> chmod +x theScript
which allows you to execute the script. Now open up your .bashrc from /home/username/.bashrc and add the following line to the end of it.
export PATH=$PATH:/home/username/scripts
then save the .bashrc and close it. The changes have now been applied, but you must open a new terminal for it to take effect in that terminal.
-Getting better at this
I wrote up a simple bash script that automates creating a .java file template the way I like my java programs laid out. What I wanted to do was be able to use this bash script from any directory. From my /home/username directory I had created another directory /home/username/scripts that is intended to house any scripts I write up.
It is simple enough to write a bash script and access it from any directory via
> bash /home/username/scripts/theScript args
but I wanted something simpler. Something like
> theScript args
And here's how it's done. You have written a script (theScript) and placed it in your /home/username/scripts directory. Now change the permission of the script
> chmod +x theScript
which allows you to execute the script. Now open up your .bashrc from /home/username/.bashrc and add the following line to the end of it.
export PATH=$PATH:/home/username/scripts
then save the .bashrc and close it. The changes have now been applied, but you must open a new terminal for it to take effect in that terminal.
-Getting better at this
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
teh funny button masher
Skater girls and nurses
How about both rolled into one? I saw one, you know. I was on my way back from the beach, driving home with my girlfriend. And on the walkway that runs parallel to the street I see a tall blonde girl in a nurses smock on a skateboard going to work. My girlfriend caught me staring. It didn't help that I exclaimed "That. Is. AWESOME." So I'm still making that up to her.
-I love you dear.
In other news
Hapless .gif beats himself to a pulp.
-Deeper shade of red.
How about both rolled into one? I saw one, you know. I was on my way back from the beach, driving home with my girlfriend. And on the walkway that runs parallel to the street I see a tall blonde girl in a nurses smock on a skateboard going to work. My girlfriend caught me staring. It didn't help that I exclaimed "That. Is. AWESOME." So I'm still making that up to her.
-I love you dear.
In other news
Hapless .gif beats himself to a pulp.
-Deeper shade of red.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
kde and ICEauthority fix
Installed XFCE and ICEauthority didn't like it.
When I logged out of XFCE and tried to log into KDE it wouldn't let me.
was what it said to me.
was another.
How did I fix it? Well, reinstalling ksmserver through kynaptic (and subsequently from the Kubuntu install CD) did nothing. This is what I had to do.
-And all was better
When I logged out of XFCE and tried to log into KDE it wouldn't let me.
The following installation problem was detected while trying to start KDE:
No write access to '/home/myaccount/.ICEauthority'.
KDE is unable to start [OK]
was what it said to me.
Could not start ksmserver. Check your installation. [okay]
was another.
How did I fix it? Well, reinstalling ksmserver through kynaptic (and subsequently from the Kubuntu install CD) did nothing. This is what I had to do.
login to failsafe
sudo chown myaccount:myaccount /home/myaccount/.ICEauthority
-And all was better
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Good music
Country Music Festival
No, it's not for me. The Merit Mountain Music Fest is going on at the moment, which wraps up Saturday night. My girlfriend is attending this weekend with some of her girl friends from work. Meanwhile, the Kelowna regatta is this weekend, so I have my own music festival to attend. One of the bands, The Bleeding Alarm, will be there in the park. I got to see them again during Wakefest this passed weekend.
Wakefest was pretty good. I was quite pleased with the Alexisonfire concert. I got to see The Bleeding Alarm, The Warriors, Comeback Kid and Alexisonfire. Saturday night I saw Blinded, Sweatshop Union and De La Soul. That was ok, but not as good as the night before, though it drew a larger crowd.
-Stinky kid, shower time
No, it's not for me. The Merit Mountain Music Fest is going on at the moment, which wraps up Saturday night. My girlfriend is attending this weekend with some of her girl friends from work. Meanwhile, the Kelowna regatta is this weekend, so I have my own music festival to attend. One of the bands, The Bleeding Alarm, will be there in the park. I got to see them again during Wakefest this passed weekend.
Wakefest was pretty good. I was quite pleased with the Alexisonfire concert. I got to see The Bleeding Alarm, The Warriors, Comeback Kid and Alexisonfire. Saturday night I saw Blinded, Sweatshop Union and De La Soul. That was ok, but not as good as the night before, though it drew a larger crowd.
-Stinky kid, shower time
So hot
A laptop in the lap makes me a hot boy
And not in the attractive sense. This thing can heat up a room, maybe that's why my apartment has been so warm lately. I've been using my laptop at home more often than usual.
So I'm thinking of putting a Linux partition on my laptop, possibly this weekend. I've freed up ~40% of my drive, will defrag and run the installer. I'm thinking a 15Gb partition aught to be alright.
Small post, mostly to get this picture moved off the front page. It's run its course, time to bring something else up.
-Lvl 27 Cleric/Thief I wonder what that is referencing?
And not in the attractive sense. This thing can heat up a room, maybe that's why my apartment has been so warm lately. I've been using my laptop at home more often than usual.
So I'm thinking of putting a Linux partition on my laptop, possibly this weekend. I've freed up ~40% of my drive, will defrag and run the installer. I'm thinking a 15Gb partition aught to be alright.
Small post, mostly to get this picture moved off the front page. It's run its course, time to bring something else up.
-Lvl 27 Cleric/Thief I wonder what that is referencing?
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Nothing to do with
This picture has nothing to do with anything I know of
Except that I thought it was pretty cool.
I get to see
Alexisonfire tomorrow, along with Comeback Kid for Wakefest going on down the street. Party party music bikini music splash.
-Just a keyboard cowboy
Except that I thought it was pretty cool.
I get to see
Alexisonfire tomorrow, along with Comeback Kid for Wakefest going on down the street. Party party music bikini music splash.
-Just a keyboard cowboy
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
War of the worlds movie
Because I said so.
I did say I was going to post my thoughts on Spielburg's War of the Worlds movie, didn't I. Let me just say, Ebert can have his opinion all to himself.
Oh, speaking of Ebert and his review: Is the Canadian version different from the American version? It appeared to me that in the American review they only see an alien outside his machine once, during the final death march that brings the machines down. However, when I saw the movie this weekend there was a scene where a group of three or four aliens peruse the contents of a basement.
But back to my thoughts. Spielburg stuck to the original story as best as a modern day era could allow. He pulled it off, he really did. The tripod machines, the heat ray, the human collecting, the fluid extraction, the red weed. OK, wait. The red weed wasn't quite like I envisioned. I was thinking something more short and shrubby, less tendril-y. He seemed to use a lot of firecracker sound effects, too. When a machine set down his huge pod of a foot "crack-crackle-pop-splutter". When someone burst into a cloud of dust (which evidently sends your shirt and pants flying straight up into the air) "crackle-boom-fizzle-pop-pop-boom".
And about those pants and shirts, there's a scene where Tom Cruise's character is running for his life from the monsters and all around him are pants and shirts falling from the sky. This happens again later in the film when he's accompanied by his children.
I'm looking forward to Timothy Hine's version of War as well, his being set during the actually time frame of the book. To see these awesome monsters destroying London of the 1800s should be fun to watch.
-crackle-fizz-pop "Oh look out! FALLING PANTS!!!"
I did say I was going to post my thoughts on Spielburg's War of the Worlds movie, didn't I. Let me just say, Ebert can have his opinion all to himself.
Oh, speaking of Ebert and his review: Is the Canadian version different from the American version? It appeared to me that in the American review they only see an alien outside his machine once, during the final death march that brings the machines down. However, when I saw the movie this weekend there was a scene where a group of three or four aliens peruse the contents of a basement.
But back to my thoughts. Spielburg stuck to the original story as best as a modern day era could allow. He pulled it off, he really did. The tripod machines, the heat ray, the human collecting, the fluid extraction, the red weed. OK, wait. The red weed wasn't quite like I envisioned. I was thinking something more short and shrubby, less tendril-y. He seemed to use a lot of firecracker sound effects, too. When a machine set down his huge pod of a foot "crack-crackle-pop-splutter". When someone burst into a cloud of dust (which evidently sends your shirt and pants flying straight up into the air) "crackle-boom-fizzle-pop-pop-boom".
And about those pants and shirts, there's a scene where Tom Cruise's character is running for his life from the monsters and all around him are pants and shirts falling from the sky. This happens again later in the film when he's accompanied by his children.
I'm looking forward to Timothy Hine's version of War as well, his being set during the actually time frame of the book. To see these awesome monsters destroying London of the 1800s should be fun to watch.
-crackle-fizz-pop "Oh look out! FALLING PANTS!!!"
Monday, July 04, 2005
simple audio fix
Well, listen here
Turns out I had a problem with my onboard sound card (via chipset) conflicting with my Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Gamer 5.1 sound card. The quick and easy fix? Here's what I had to do:
Show all sound modules currently enabled
> lsmod|grep snd
and in my case, I knew I wanted to turn off anything to do with via. So I looked on the left side for snd_[whatever via] and made a note of it. What is on the right side isn't important, even if you see via on that side.
snd_emu10k1 81668 1
snd_rawmidi 22944 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_seq_device 8332 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_ac97_codec 64608 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_pcm_oss 47652 0
snd_mixer_oss 16768 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 84872 3 snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 23300 1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 9604 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_via82xx [someNumber] [somethingElse]
snd_util_mem 4608 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep 9220 1 snd_emu10k1
snd 50276 11 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
soundcore 9824 1 snd
I make a note of snd_via82xx because I want to add that to the system's blacklist. Open up blacklist with editing privileges:
> sudo emacs /etc/hotplug/blacklist
And somewhere at the bottom should be the snd_ section. Simply add whichever module you want blacklisted and it will no longer load at system restart. That allows the other sound card, my SB Live! 5.1 to work without the sound being disabled.
A point to note, this enables the dsp channel of the system. Only one program at a time can use this channel, wheres the alsa works any way. At least that's my understanding.
To see what is using the alsa channel:
> lsof /dev/snd/*
and to see what is using the dsp channel:
> lsof /dev/dsp
One last thing, codecs. You'll want to install audio and/or video codecs now that you've got your soundcard working. The codecs section of the Ubuntu guide suggests the following steps. However, you can search for the packages through Kynaptic just as well. Through kynaptic you don't have to do the gst-register step:
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-plugins
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-lame
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install w32codecs
sudo apt-get install libdivx4linux
sudo apt-get install lame
sudo apt-get install sox
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install mjpegtools
sudo apt-get install vorbis-tools
gst-register-0.8
-Audio goodness
Turns out I had a problem with my onboard sound card (via chipset) conflicting with my Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Gamer 5.1 sound card. The quick and easy fix? Here's what I had to do:
Show all sound modules currently enabled
> lsmod|grep snd
and in my case, I knew I wanted to turn off anything to do with via. So I looked on the left side for snd_[whatever via] and made a note of it. What is on the right side isn't important, even if you see via on that side.
snd_emu10k1 81668 1
snd_rawmidi 22944 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_seq_device 8332 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_ac97_codec 64608 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_pcm_oss 47652 0
snd_mixer_oss 16768 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 84872 3 snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 23300 1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 9604 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_via82xx [someNumber] [somethingElse]
snd_util_mem 4608 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep 9220 1 snd_emu10k1
snd 50276 11 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
soundcore 9824 1 snd
I make a note of snd_via82xx because I want to add that to the system's blacklist. Open up blacklist with editing privileges:
> sudo emacs /etc/hotplug/blacklist
And somewhere at the bottom should be the snd_ section. Simply add whichever module you want blacklisted and it will no longer load at system restart. That allows the other sound card, my SB Live! 5.1 to work without the sound being disabled.
A point to note, this enables the dsp channel of the system. Only one program at a time can use this channel, wheres the alsa works any way. At least that's my understanding.
To see what is using the alsa channel:
> lsof /dev/snd/*
and to see what is using the dsp channel:
> lsof /dev/dsp
One last thing, codecs. You'll want to install audio and/or video codecs now that you've got your soundcard working. The codecs section of the Ubuntu guide suggests the following steps. However, you can search for the packages through Kynaptic just as well. Through kynaptic you don't have to do the gst-register step:
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-plugins
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-lame
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install w32codecs
sudo apt-get install libdivx4linux
sudo apt-get install lame
sudo apt-get install sox
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install mjpegtools
sudo apt-get install vorbis-tools
gst-register-0.8
-Audio goodness
simple nvidia fix
Get that nVidia video card working.
Real solution at the end of this post, borrowed from the ubuntu wiki. If this solution does not work or you do not have an nVidia video card, try there. It may have a better solution for you.
I couldn't figure out why my nVidia video card wasn't working with my new install of Kubuntu. I tried downloading a .sh package from the nVidia web site. When I installed the script, it complained about shutting off the X server. Well, figuring out what the hell X server is was another bit of research. Another easy fix.
Ctrl-Alt-F1 to bring up a text login screen.
Log in as root (or do it all through sudo). When logging in as root, you may have to set the root password now. That requires editing of the shadow file, basically erasing the * in the roots password (this makes it so you don't need a password for root. A very dangerous thing). Now that root requires no password, log in as root and change its password with passwd.
To turn off the X server (the graphical user interface of Linux, like the fancy login screen)
> sudo /etc/init.d/?dm stop
# where ? is either g for gnome, k for kde
# of course, to start it again, end the line with start instead of stop.
Now that X is turned off, the video card install script still didn't want to install. Something about not having access to the kernel to reconfigure itself. So the true, easy fix appears and viola! working video card.
Here are the simple lines to type into the terminal in order to automatically configure your video card for your system. Note, this is specifically for an nVidia video card. It will be different for ATI.
> sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx
> sudo nvidia-glx-config enable
And that will do it! To make sure it's working, benchmark it in glxgears.
> glxgears
kyle@waggyMachine:~$ glxgears
8151 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1630.200 FPS
8825 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1765.000 FPS
8764 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1752.800 FPS
8774 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1754.800 FPS
8870 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1774.000 FPS
Not getting above 1000 frames per second? Don't fear. Either reboot the computer or simply log in as root from a text terminal then
> /etc/init.d/kdm stop
> /etc/inti.d/kdm start
and it should work fine.
-Now if I could only get my sound working
Real solution at the end of this post, borrowed from the ubuntu wiki. If this solution does not work or you do not have an nVidia video card, try there. It may have a better solution for you.
I couldn't figure out why my nVidia video card wasn't working with my new install of Kubuntu. I tried downloading a .sh package from the nVidia web site. When I installed the script, it complained about shutting off the X server. Well, figuring out what the hell X server is was another bit of research. Another easy fix.
Ctrl-Alt-F1 to bring up a text login screen.
Log in as root (or do it all through sudo). When logging in as root, you may have to set the root password now. That requires editing of the shadow file, basically erasing the * in the roots password (this makes it so you don't need a password for root. A very dangerous thing). Now that root requires no password, log in as root and change its password with passwd.
To turn off the X server (the graphical user interface of Linux, like the fancy login screen)
> sudo /etc/init.d/?dm stop
# where ? is either g for gnome, k for kde
# of course, to start it again, end the line with start instead of stop.
Now that X is turned off, the video card install script still didn't want to install. Something about not having access to the kernel to reconfigure itself. So the true, easy fix appears and viola! working video card.
Here are the simple lines to type into the terminal in order to automatically configure your video card for your system. Note, this is specifically for an nVidia video card. It will be different for ATI.
> sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx
> sudo nvidia-glx-config enable
And that will do it! To make sure it's working, benchmark it in glxgears.
> glxgears
kyle@waggyMachine:~$ glxgears
8151 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1630.200 FPS
8825 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1765.000 FPS
8764 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1752.800 FPS
8774 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1754.800 FPS
8870 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1774.000 FPS
Not getting above 1000 frames per second? Don't fear. Either reboot the computer or simply log in as root from a text terminal then
> /etc/init.d/kdm stop
> /etc/inti.d/kdm start
and it should work fine.
-Now if I could only get my sound working
Three days of Kubuntu
I've converted
No longer am I a slave to windows. I've taken to Linux, I dove in head first. Some things don't work, sure. But they will, and I'll make them work. I'll be given instructions and I'll fix these problems myself. First was setting up repositories so I have a bigger list of programs to download and install. Next was setting up my passwords, I got to play with the shadow file. I wanted to play games next, so I installed almost everything game related. Well, not everything to do with games, but I did select gnome games and kde games and kde toys and supertux and tuxkart and tuxracer.
Waitaminute. How come I can't play tuxracer!? Right, 'build your own operating system'. My graphics card wasn't configured for my computer yet. More on this later, as it's another helpful hint for installing a new debian operating system.
Though I figured out my video card problem, I am still having troubles with my sound. I've installed the recommended media packages and still no luck. What is really strange is the game Frozen Bubble has sound wrapped around it's little finger. It has made audio its bitch. But why won't any other program make use of it? I can't hear an mp3 in Juk or Amarok. I've got no sound with a video in Noatun. Not even a squeek when playing Blob Wars: Metal Blob Solid. Just another problem I've got to read about and and easy fix to apply.
-It's finding the easy fix that's the hard part
No longer am I a slave to windows. I've taken to Linux, I dove in head first. Some things don't work, sure. But they will, and I'll make them work. I'll be given instructions and I'll fix these problems myself. First was setting up repositories so I have a bigger list of programs to download and install. Next was setting up my passwords, I got to play with the shadow file. I wanted to play games next, so I installed almost everything game related. Well, not everything to do with games, but I did select gnome games and kde games and kde toys and supertux and tuxkart and tuxracer.
Waitaminute. How come I can't play tuxracer!? Right, 'build your own operating system'. My graphics card wasn't configured for my computer yet. More on this later, as it's another helpful hint for installing a new debian operating system.
Though I figured out my video card problem, I am still having troubles with my sound. I've installed the recommended media packages and still no luck. What is really strange is the game Frozen Bubble has sound wrapped around it's little finger. It has made audio its bitch. But why won't any other program make use of it? I can't hear an mp3 in Juk or Amarok. I've got no sound with a video in Noatun. Not even a squeek when playing Blob Wars: Metal Blob Solid. Just another problem I've got to read about and and easy fix to apply.
-It's finding the easy fix that's the hard part
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