Planet Nashville 2600

Dear world:
I understand that you hate Sarah Palin... no, really, I get that.

now could you please SHUT THE FUCK UP?!

September 04, 2008 02:09 PM

"Tonight: the series premier you've been waiting for... Beverly Hills, 90210."

I think I can safely say that I was, indeed, NOT waiting for this. In fact, I'm not sure I can think of anyone that has been.

a.k.a. More proof that Hollywood has run the fuck out of ideas.

September 02, 2008 07:24 PM

Yes, that's right.  Today's number is forty-seven.  "What?" you may ask... Kilometers!

As in, today I've gone approximately forty-seven kilometers buzzing around the neighborhood getting the hang of the new scooter.  The only even minor problem I had was the tendency to try to make minor course corrections with my butt, which works on a 10-speed bike because you weigh more than it does.  This doesn't accomplish much on a scooter that weighs considerably more than you do.

Yeah, I think I'll go ahead and ride it into work tomorrow.

August 28, 2008 12:16 AM

23 today, woohoo.

August 27, 2008 02:17 PM

So I've had my head buried in some code at work for that past couple of weeks, barely escaping pulling my hair out and looking like Kojak.

Let's step in the wayback machine. A few years ago I was tasked with implementing ITIL, at least in terms of Change Management and Incident Management. We had been using a web based app written by the medical center to manage changes, but were unsuccessful in getting them to make any modifications to the software, because they wanted us to migrate over to HP Service Desk with them. They wouldn't even give us the source to let us host it ourselves. The basic idea was that we would eventually get tired of using a bad tool and migrate to what they perceived was a great tool. The only problem is that we could recognize the web app for what it was - something that had flaws, but that we could mold to our own use. The new tool was a fat client app that couldn't be touched via API unless we went through the medical center's support groups and competed for time on their calendar along with all of the well funded doctors. I'm sure it's not much of a stretch for you to realize that we preferred to stick with the old system.

Now step back to the present. The medical center is tired of maintaining really old hardware running a really old version of IIS. They sent us the source and told us to get it hosted locally ASAP so that they could retire the old server. Yay! Er, wait. We don't want to run IIS 5.0 and interface to an Access DB backend! The first thing that I tried was to migrate to SQL server, which was a step in the right direction, but ASP recordset code doesn't quite work in an ASP.NET environment. I kept getting odd, inconsistent results back from queries.

I had to make a choice - convert all of the ASP to ASP.NET, or rewrite the entire thing in PHP. Since I don't really know ASP.NET that well and don't want to, either, I chose to rewrite the entire thing in PHP. I built class libraries around all of the database objects and built methods for everything but rendering HTML. Yesterday we rolled out the new system into production and the most common thing I keep hearing is, "It's so much faster now!" I've also managed to integrate two other tools that I had hosted locally for Change Management into one seamless interface, and get rid of all of the libcurl web scraping routines that I had been using. Yeah, the only way I was able to automate some tasks was to go back to the old school ways of screen scraping. Fortunately now, however, it's just a class method away.

Woot. I used to have the domain phpimp.com. Too bad I don't anymore. heh.

:HAPPY:

August 26, 2008 03:24 PM

Ok, so I thought those CreditReport.com commercials couldn't get more annoying.

Now the the dumbass in the commercials apparently can't afford to scrape together a couple hundred bucks for a halfway decent bicycle. Oh, and he apparently sold his car for the bike.

So... the best job he can get is at a fast food place
He had to get a loan on an extremely used CRX
He still lives with his mom because he can't "pass the credit check" for an apartment.
He can't scrape enough cash together to buy a new bike (hell, WalMart sells them for what, $60?)

I'm thinking the guy's problem isn't that he has bad credit, it's that he's a fucking loser.

August 26, 2008 12:06 PM

So... ummm... approaching the end of August and we're supposed to have a high of 79....

Not to complain, but WTF?!

August 25, 2008 12:01 PM

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
-Rodney Dangerfield

-------

yeah yeah, i havent posted in awhile. life the universe and everything has called me away from the blog. ive recently fallen in love with twitter.com, if you havent heard of it before go check it out. been on a neat workout plan i composed from many sources online and its been great the past few weeks. GET RIPT SON!

LAN party is still going to happen sometime in the next month or so. we are going to VPN with the huntsville crew and do some nashville vs huntsville gaming, so if youre interested in it shoot me an email or get in touch on irc.

work is good, life is good, friends is good, its all good!
-ware

(ps -> pic from HSV trip last month with lm and skydog, LOL! i didnt let her take a pic of me with the princess hat on :P)

August 16, 2008 05:03 PM

I started the batch of Apfelwein for PhreakNIC on Wednesday night, so it should be just hitting the right maturity by the first or second week of October.

The recipe is the standard Apfelwein recipe with no changes on the front end. When I move it to secondary I will probably add some vanilla and cinnamon, but I have 45 days to think about it.

I will also be making a batch of Pumpkin Ale for PhreakNIC and another batch of something else that I haven't decided on yet.

August 15, 2008 10:01 PM

weeeeeeeee

been busy with life, work, and everything. LAN party soon, touch base with me for more info!

-ware

August 04, 2008 05:11 AM

So, apparently Chicago is planning on fighting for it's right to keep law abiding citizens disarmed. 'Cause, you know, SCOTUS didn't just rule that you can't do that.

Oh, wait... Daley knows full and well that SCOTUS just told D.C. "no." Gotta love the quote though: "I don't look at this lightly—that, 'Oh, because the Supreme Court's done it we're just gonna dismiss it and all of a sudden people can arm themselves.'" Of course, this is ignoring all the thugs that are getting illegal guns anyways... but that's me splitting hairs.

I guess being in line to beat your dad as the longest running mayor of Chicago means that you don't have to pay attention to such details.

Oh, here's the article. Another wonderful bit is at the end of the article, where it mentions him defending cops that beat a paralyzed man.

July 26, 2008 03:34 PM

ment to put of a pic or 2 awhile back from when we went down to hsv to see there shop. we stopped by the space and rocket center before heading over...dont let ware lose in the gift shop.

July 26, 2008 01:15 AM

So, I knew DC was seeing if they could get away with all but ignoring the outcome of Heller vs DC, but this is ridiculous! Part of the ruling was that DC would issue license/allow Heller to bring the pistol he uses for work home for protection. From what I've read, the new law of the land is that long arms are to remain unloaded and trigger locked or otherwise made useless unless they are being used to deter an obvious threat, and you can get a license to own a revolver, but not a semi-auto pistol.

Apparently Heller was wanting to license a semi-auto pistol in the first place. So, when he went to get his pistol registered, he was denied. Regardless of having a court order from the FUCKING SUPREME COURT.

So, as far as I can tell, the city of DC has just given the raspberry to SCOTUS.

July 17, 2008 09:12 PM

The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.
-Andrew S. Tanenbaum

------

waitin fer my toys to come in this afternoon...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145525
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814143119
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824155053

*drool*

July 16, 2008 08:31 PM

tim made me a picture of congratz. lulz




:P

July 12, 2008 02:24 PM

How can someone possibly have a "private" conversation...

...in a national news studio...
...sitting at the desk on the set...
...surrounded by cameras and camera operators...
...with a reporter right next to you...
...and a mic on your lapel?

Is this one of those things I'll "never understand", like smoking crack with a hooker in a hotel room in DC, and video taping it?

Update: I FIGURED IT OUT!

Jesse Jackson was channeling Eric Cartman.

July 10, 2008 01:08 AM

"...The typical fan is either some dude wearing khaki cargo shorts replete with dangling rock climbing hooks, even though he doesn't hike because he can't afford to drive his gas-guzzling Jeep, or some chick with huge boobs, buck teeth, and an ankle-length floral skirt that she twirls around like an idiot because she thinks her awesome boobs give her enough social capital to make up for the buck teeth and hairy toes (they don't): "



http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=puns

rofl! i lulz'd outloud so i had to share! hahaha

-ware

July 07, 2008 04:36 PM

Ok, so if you wanna steal the copper again, figure out how to unscrew these... since they are superglued AND ground down. and the gasket/cover is superglued together. asshats.

July 02, 2008 04:33 AM

grow some balls

July 01, 2008 05:44 PM

jsut a quick pic form dinner the other night with the hsv crew

July 01, 2008 01:13 PM

My youngest son is staying with me for a week and today we were going to work on the bike, but instead ended up in town at the Adventure Science Center.   A good friend got us in on his membership as guests and let us have two vouchers they had given him for the planitarium show so we got to spend a few hours playing with science toys and watching a Planitarium film made especially for this center called Stars.

From there we struggled with traffic and hunger in seeking out a Taco Bell (his choice) but I was unable to find one.  We left rush hour traffic to skirt it's edges and look for another place.  He decided a bacon burger from Wendy's would be good and we both got a "meal" and looked for a place to eat.  

 Having never actually been to the Parthanon we drove there and sat on a park bench with our lunch. He got a call from a young girl while we were getting our food so he was on the phone the whole time.  It is funny to watch him talking to teenage girls, sort of disinterested but not.  Not willing to hang up on them but no furthering the conversation in any way.  

We finished our food and from there went and sat at the Parthanon, read the plaques, and talked about the possibility of coming back the following day when they would be open.  We layed on the grass, watched people play frisbee, walked down the the pond next to hit, and eventually headed to the house.

Once at the house we pulled the bike out of storage and began to work on it.  I took the battery out and got the cover off the air filter.  Wow, the owner previous to who I got her from had put a sponge in place of an air filter.  I have to imagine this would prevent free airflow but I could be wrong.  I checked the bowl on the carborator and it seemed fine, good fuel flow from the gas tanks.  Personally I think that with a new battery she might just fire right up.

She also needs a new throttle cable so i took that loos.  There are missing bolts and spacers on the sissybar/fender assembly so I will need to get that fixed.  Two and a half years in stroage have taken their toll on the tires as well. 

It was getting dark and my roommate showed up.  I pushed her back into the shed (the bike, not the roommate) and went inside to cleanup.  Tomorrow I will charge the battery and get a throttle cable and an air filter and we will see what is what.

July 01, 2008 03:41 AM

You wanna piece o' me?  You better be ready.

June 25, 2008 05:45 PM

and yes it fell about 2 miles down the road

June 24, 2008 11:53 PM

Limelight

Recipe:
Brewer's Best American Light Ale
(Sorry, I threw out the directions before getting the exact ingredients)
6 fresh limes (purchase 1 week after you brew!)

Brew Date: 15 Jun 2008
Secondary Date: 22 Jun 2008
Keg Date: 29 Jun 2008

Starting Gravity: 1.039
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.009
Estimate ABV: 3.91%
Estimated Calories/Pint : 175

I decided to make a "lawnmower beer" for summer - something light and low in alcohol content so that I can drink a few while mowing the lawn, or sitting outside watching the grass grow. I decided to go a little south of the border, though, and make a lime flavored beer.

After only 1 week in the primary fermentation stage, I took 6 fresh limes and scraped the zest off of them into the secondary fermenter. I then cut each lime in half, squeezed out as much juice into the secondary as possible, then dropped the lime halves into there as well. Once I had all of the limes, zest and juice in there, I siphoned the wort from the primary to the secondary. This allowed the yeast to wake back up as I started getting bubble on the airlock around every 20-30 seconds.

June 23, 2008 01:49 PM

Ok, to ride in this state I have to have a motorcycle endorcment.  The most simple way to aquire this is to take a class where you get a certification that the DMV accepts as a waiver for taking their test.  I signed up at http://www.learntoride.org and today I borrowed Mirage's bike and took the class.  It went well into the evening and, though a number of notable things happened I did pass, I do have my waiver and certificate (oh, did I mention this also gets me 10% off my insurance?) and I got Mirage's bike back to him. 

Note to self: remember to talk about the phone and the near wreck. 

June 23, 2008 03:33 AM

when you go to pick up a package that they have already screwed up the delivery on, you'd at least expect some sort of service but this is what you get....



yup, an empty room. no one working. had to wander around in the offices in the back before someone noticed.

June 18, 2008 06:45 PM

Okay, so since this has been a long time coming, and from time to time I get people asking me for hardware recommendations, I'm going to actually post some now.  Why I'm doing this is almost as important as what I'm buying, so here goes...

For awhile now It's been pretty clear that I am going to have to rework my homebrew PVR setup to handle digital cable.  At present, with analog standard-definition cable (and no premium channels) I get along fine with my current rig--an AMD 3200+ with 768Mb of RAM, ASRock 939dual-SATAII board, a Hauppauge PVR-500, and a positively ludicrous amount of disk--but it's just barely able to pi]lay h.264-encoded content for 720p.  (I have to disable the skiploopfilter that does the final bits of image rendering to make it happen)  With the media monopolists rapidly closing in on completely walling off "fair use" rights with irritating technical measures (why?  So they can sell those rights back to us for a fee.) and Comcast already beginning to take analog channels from the Extended Basic lineup it's only a small matter of time before they take away the channels that are the whole reason I pay for cable in the first place--which means I'll be forced to go fully digital and use an STB (set-top box) that'll basically eliminate the utility of having two TV tuners).  This also means buying a Hauppauge HD-PVR to record component output.

Now, I don't particularly mind the idea of no longer having two tuners, but I do object strenuously to corporations taking things away from their customers.  Up until now, although most cable francise operators have stopped just short of calling people who get their cable service and hook it up to three TVs thieves, the reality is that this switch to digital gives them the ability to make these people pay for each and every STB that will now be required.  The mere existance of the HD-PVR means I don't have to pay even more for the ability to record something that has never been a problem in the past.  A small coup has taken place on that front (in more than one way), in that I don't think the monopolists ever expected such a product to hit the market, but it threatens their new revenue streams so I figure it's only a matter of time before some lawyers try to declare the unit a tool for theft and have Hauppauge injuncted from making it anymore.  It definitely means that I'm going to have to buy one this summer instead of this fall as I'd planned.  Since the HD-PVR encodes everything using h.264, that is pretty much where the hardware upgrade requirement comes from.  It's not going to be nearly as useful to record something if I have to transcode it before being able to play it back.
 
To this end I am basically chopping up the functionality of my MythTV box and upgrading Ye Ol' Home Network a bit.  Up until now, I've been keeping the whole thing in that one box (which means a lot of fans, and a lot of white noise that I don't want near the TV because it makes it hard to hear things).  With this upgrade I'm going to basically move most of those disks into their own box in the study for use as a dedicated fileserver.  I'm also going to be upgrading the backbone (such that it is--it's not a whole lot of stuff) to Gigabit Ethernet because frankly, that's faster than the disks are so there will likely be an improvement in disk performance (because a wholly separatee and dedicated machine will be handling storage issues now).  Well, I should probably rephrase that... the important "PVR parts" are coming out of the current case and most of the drives are staying in it, and the whole machine is moving to the study.  In it's place, a new frontend using the following hardware is going in next to the TV:

1 Antec New Solutions NSK 2480 HTPC case, with a 380W power supply.
1 ASRock ALiveNF7G-FullHD R3.0 motherboard
1 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ "Windsor" CPU (2.4Ghz core)
2 sticks of Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 RAM

The total cost on that, after shipping and taxes is just a hair over $300.  If someone wanted to make a gaming rig, since that motherboard has a PCIE x16 slot on it (like most do now) it's just a hard disk and an nVidia 8600 or 8800 video card away from being a pretty reasonable gaming rig.  That CPU is a bit overkill, but it's pretty close to the cheapest thing going right now at ~$50 retail.  The motherboard is a pretty cheap one from a vendor I trust, and it has an nVidia 7050 chipset built into it, with both VGA and DVI output ports.  My TV has a VGA input, so that eliminates a bunch of issues very neatly.  This chipset is fully supported under Linux it seems--because unlike ATI, nVidia actually cares about us (which is probably in part because the Homebrew PVR users have scoured the planet for the last of the awesome 5200 cards) Linux users.  The motherboard options were limited somewhat by the fact that very few "reasonable" HTPC-style cases can fit anything but a micro ATX motherboard.

The place I'm buying from (and most places) don't seem to be carrying anything smaller than 512Mb sticks of DDR2-800, which is why I'm putting a whole Gb of RAM in the box when 256Mb would probably do it fine.  The dual-core CPU means the box will be able to do transcoding and commercial flagging jobs in the background without screwing with me trying to watch and/or record something at the same time.  The RAM is the exactly right speed for the CPU to not bottleneck on memory throughput, and will probably still be useful a year from now when I cannibalize these parts to build a new desktop with a Phenom (triple- or quad- core) CPU.

A single 500Gb drive (which one can obtain for about $100USD) would be enough disk space for the machine to have more space for recordings (and more recordings) than the current top-tier TiVo machine could provide--without the worry that some damn lawyer is going to file a suit against TiVo so that their users are forever forced to watch commercials at lawsuit-point.  (Don't laugh, it's already been tried more than once).  Luckily, after I've repurposed the old hardware. I'm going to have more than three times that space available over the network.  Unlike many people, I actually do own a large amount of CDs, most of which (and getting closer each week to saying "all of which") are encoded and stored on the network so I don't have to fish around through them.  The vinyls are another matter entirely---and a right bitch to encode to OGG or MP3.

I am planning on using the stock CPU cooler that comes with the CPU initially.  It should fit in the case, and after I see whether or not it makes an appreciable amount of noise I might consider replacing it, but I'm not about to mess about with overclocking it.  Overclocking is not something you do to equipment you want to be reliable, and I expect this new rig will be usable for at least the next five years.

IF you are planning to use this as a starting point for a gaming box, it should kinda go without saying that the HTPC case would be a bad match (although it is pretty) and an actual video card (as in, not integrated into the motherboard) suitable for gaming is going to jack up the power supply requirements by about 115W, so the PSU that comes with that case would also be insufficient.  You have been warned.   A video card and another hard disk jacks up the minimum PSU (power supply unit) to about 450-500W with a good brand PSU.  Some cheap P.O.S. would need to be 600-650W to be "safe", but I'd say simply to not scrimp on the PSU because it's the one piece that when/if it fails, can take all your other hardware with it as it dies.  Antec is still a good choice (if a bit pricey) tho'.

The only other important tidbits I can think of to throw out there is that the motherboard actually does have a serial port header on it so I can keep using the serial IR transciever I have--I'll probably actually drill a couple of tiny holes in the front of the case to stick the elements through.  The site I bought it from didn't actually mention it for some reason, but it's definitely there.  I was originally going to put the tuner card in the machine going into the study, but with such a massive amount of extra RAM available, I might as well plan on keeping the MySQL server and the backend server running on the frontend box.

Note that I've not actually included the gigabit ethernet card or gigabit ethernet switch in the list above because I'm going to order those later, after I've gotten the hardware moved around and restabilized.  I will also be ordering the HD-PVR (and probably calling Comcast to switch to digital at the same time).

Oh, one last rant...  IF the monopolists weren't such a bunch of greedy jackasses, virtually none of this crap would have been necessary.  I would be able to simply connect the new digital cable box to the PVR with a simple firewire cable and get digital cable into the PVR over that.  Comcast is flagging almost all broadcasts with the "5C" bit) which involves a proprietary and legally-encumbered mechanism that can not be legally (well, not without risking getting your butt sued off) duplicated on Linux.  This is definitely against the spirit of the FCC ruling about all digital cable boxes being required to have a working firewire port.    The current push to eliminate the misnamed "analog hole" that's going on is just more of the same bullshit--so the companies can take away our ability to do what we've been doing all along for the opportunity to sell that functionality back to us.  Perhaps if Comcast weren't such a pack of ignorant jackasses and say, kept their digital service working properly (because their OnDemand stuff is completely rubbish--anything you watch will stop in the middle and bail out, forcing you to start it all over again), they probably wouldn't need to engage in these sorts of practices to keep their profit margins growing.  The next time someone questions whether or not these new mechanisms and legal games that the monopolists are playing aren't hurting customer choice and limiting innovation, well... this crap right here should should make it pretty obvious that they are.

...and if the HD-PVR didn't exist, you can bet your ass I'd be talking about how to break the methods used by QAM and/or the "5C" on firewire instead of spending another $600 on hardware upgrades.  There's no reason anyone should be forced to watch programming exactly when it's broadcast in an "or else" kind of situation, and there's no reason they should be forced to pay extra to record it so they can watch it later.  I am not a pirate and I don't apprecitate it being made a de-facto assumption that I am.  It just happens that it would be a huge hassle to crack those methods, and $600 is a bit less than my irritation level at the problem. 

June 18, 2008 03:40 AM

The image to the left is something that showed up in the little minimarket next door to my office.  I didn't even know this one was coming out.  Me likey!  My boss will, of course, have a heart attack when he finds out about this development, as he doesn't like me drinking Full Throttles at work because it makes me hyperactive.  With a few of these in me, I can probably fold time.

Note to parents: Children who drink two dozen of these in one day will die, and that's fine.

It leaves more on the shelves for me.

June 16, 2008 10:18 PM

I just went on ebay and found a service manual, hareley davidson sprotster, 1970-1978.  I placed the order and hope to have the book by the end of the week.

June 16, 2008 05:51 PM

I took a couple of hours off work this evening and we brought the bike home.  She is now resting in my roommate's storage building awaiting some care and maintanence.  I will get to her as soon as I can.  I am making arrangments to have her moved to where my family is living but may not get that done.  back to work now.

June 14, 2008 12:15 AM

Everything in life has a balance. I've been working to get things back in line, and find some harmony. Today, I found out something that might throw things out of balance a bit. I've gotta look into it, but it's funny, tragic, insane, and inconceivable, all at the same time.

I've tried to be a man of my word, as much as I possibly can. Soon, I may have to come thru on something I promised someone a couple years ago.

It might be easier to walk away from, but someone won't keep my name and reputation out of the mix, as we agreed. So, time to dig a little deeper, think a little harder, and contemplate the merits of just letting those people drown themselves.

June 12, 2008 06:25 PM

I met my new friend today in a friends back yard.  She was quiet at first, almost shy.  We pulled her out of a shed where she has waited in quiet seclusion for the last couple of years and we put a charger on her and turned her over. She did not start right away but a squirt or two of starter fluid and she fired right up.  She would not idle and initially had white smoke coming out of her pipes (I understand this is oil on the pistons) but that cleared up (My understanding is the rings loosened up after sitting for a couple years, and started doing their job). 

Compression is around 90lb, the plugs look like she is running rich (fat?).  We could not keep her running with the feed from the gas tank but a straight feed into the carbarator made her run ok, though obviously not with the mixture/fuel efficiency I should expect.  Never the less a deal was struck and she is coming to live with me.

June 12, 2008 02:19 PM

The discussion was begun and an agreement reached and I find that I am the new parent of an old motorcycle.  This motorbike is from 1974 and although some would argue that was not the best of times for this manuf, I would argue that the motorcycle needed a home and, at this point in time, I am able and willing to give it that.

I currently drive 100 miles to work every two or three days, work 2 or 3 shifts, and return that 100 miles to see my family.  The motor is a 1974 Harley Davidson Ironhead XLH1000.  This bike has its detractors, and there are those who snicker when I talk about actually getting it running right and riding it.  There are also those who suspect my age and infirmity will come into play.

For those who don't know, this model comes with 1000cc of V-twin motor bolted directly to the frame.  Not to say it will vibrate, or make noise, but it will.  I am not old by some standards my mother, for one, still thinks of me as her baby, and my wife says I need to grow up and stop actinmg like a child.  strange, seems it is the women in my life who think I am young.

 Anyway, I digress, and will from time to time.  The point is, I am getting this and we will follow what happens from here.

June 10, 2008 02:09 PM

June 07, 2008 08:17 PM

Ware followed thru and showed his chops at the backtrack 3 class. There were 12 people there, 9 of which were current members. We all brought out the laptops and fired up Backtrack 3. Opfor lead the class, and showed us all how to use Kismet. From there, we went thru and figured out how to break WEP, but from the command line, not some Gui'd pre-built system. We broke for pizza, which Corydon went and picked up for us. Good times were had by all, and we shot the bull for a bit before taking the De-Ice Disc one challenge. We took a while getting started up, so some of the guys had to bail and get home to the missus and such. A few more of us stayed and played, eventually shutting the joint down. Good thing we all have keys!

It was a good time, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We'll try to have another one soon, and hopefully we can cool it off a bit more. Stay tuned to the next round!

June 06, 2008 04:56 AM

Wrench wins this round. He brought in his stool, and threw down the gauntlet. Pics are coming soon. He's definitely set the pace for the rest of us. Check it out when you have the time, but don't pull the pin on the grenade, I don't think our insurance covers it!

June 06, 2008 04:51 AM

Backtrack 2/3 Introduction Class
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
6:00pm @ HCHQ

Curriculum:
How to boot it up – System Check – HC Wireless Setup
Tour of the O/S, and where is everything?
Start using programs
AirCrack – WEP key cracking
De-Ice Distro – Introductory Pen Testing
Question and Answer Session – Breakout time

Please bring your laptop, your power adapter, and $5 for pizza. We'll try to have some stools and such, but if you've picked up your own stool, go ahead and bring it!

June 04, 2008 12:38 AM

Woohoo! It's our first training class!

Thursday, June 5th at 6:00 pm is the first training class at HC. We'll be doing the introduction to Backtrack 3 Beta, and going over the basics of use, etc.

Opfor has volunteered to setup a rig and teach the class. Bring your laptop and power adapter. We'll supply the CDs and the teaching. Hey, if you wanna eat, bring $5 for pizza.

June 03, 2008 02:46 AM

For all members, we have installed the HC Webcam. In the interim, we'll be using it to monitor the space. We have hardware for doing multiple IP cameras, etc, but waiting on a power supply setup for it. Contact us on IRC and we'll get you the login and password. http://webcam.hackerconsortium.com

June 03, 2008 02:19 AM

I think the video clip speaks for itself.

May 23, 2008 06:16 PM

I'm pleased to note that CNN's coverage of the fiasco/debacle in Texas of the state basically confiscating 463 children over a known hoaxed phone call is finally swinging towards sanity.  The afternoon guy for CNN Atlanta who likes to trash talk people was notably subdued, and they've just been having person after person on telling him how screwed up and wrong what the state is doing is.

Being a "polygamist" doesn't necessarily mean yer abusing kids.  Growing one's own produce and making one's own clothes are unusual, but there's nothing wrong with it.  Sure, there's bound to be some abuse going on in a "compound" (the use of this word, I despise) this size, but that's sheer statistics.  In any county in the US with this many families involved, there's bound to be a few that beat the kids.  Big deal.  It doesn't mean the entire group is abusive.

What Texas seems to be reacting to is simply cultureshock.  Here's some people who don't share the same values, live off by themselves because, lets face it, most people are savages, and are pretty much self-sufficient.  Well, that'll just bruise the egos of anyone who is into conformity, because they apparently feel that weirdness should cause suffering and unhappiness (cry more, emo kids) and if there's no suffering and unhappiness, then those people must be doing something illicit and evil that's making them happy.

So, anyway, fuck Texas and their intolerance, and I hope like hell the LDS folks lawyer up and sue the holy thunderfsck out of the DHS there over infringing on their civil rights.

Me, I'm just glad there's apparently no Quakers in Texas because they'd be really f**ked.

May 19, 2008 10:29 PM

This weekend I took 2.0 out to the Adventure Science Museum (formerly known as the Cumberland Science Museum when I was growing up) since we had a boys' day out. They have a lot of neat stuff there and one section is called Bodyquest. You get to explore the different areas of the body and see how many of the organs work. Part of the experience is to follow food from entry to exit, so you first toss some balls at an open mouth to feed it. Next you have to squeeze the food down the esophagus and it makes lot of neat, fun, disgusting and gross noises. If you push the wrong way it makes an upchuck sound, if you push the right way it makes a gulping sound. Anyway, the next part it to churn the food in the stomach and then finally you wind your way through the small intestine. Both 2.0 and I rode down the slide at the exit, which is basically the Poop Chute. There is a sensor at the end that triggers a fart/poop like sound to play when you get to it. It was enough to make any mother have a nightmare and any child or male laugh out loud.



:RASPBERRY:

May 01, 2008 02:10 PM

Yesterday several of us got together for a great hiking trip at Burgess Falls State Park near Cookeville, TN. The hike is a very easy one - more like a short walk until you get to the main waterfall - and is considered to be one of the most rewarding hikes per step walked because there is so much for such a short trail. There were 11 of us hiking together and 3 more joined up later (Ob1Shinobi and his family were running late). Jeff Wee-Eng represented the 865 area code for us and Ob1 was there for the 931s. The rest of us were local to the Nashville metro area.

SkyDog even tried a new smoking cessation program with ware. Here you can see SkyDog applying the penalty for ware lighting up (which is now illegal in all TN State Parks, by the way).



After we hiked we went to Mamma Rosa's Italian restaurant in Cookeville and enjoyed an excellent meal. The stromboli there beats anything else in the entire Southeast region, and trust me, I've tried to find another as good. However, even after eating a giant stromboli, Jeff Wee-Eng ordered a sausage foot-long sub... to eat right then. Once the waitress got over the shock and brought him the sub, he ate it all up. When she came back to see if we needed anything else, he ordered a piece of chocolate layer cake. I think this boy can give Tim Ball a run for his money in eating contests.

Here is a short video of the waterfall and our resident ecotaku, Jeff Wee-Eng walking along the rocks at the bottom.

April 13, 2008 03:44 PM

So we got a MacBook Air in the office today. Ralph, my boss, got one since he's an apple reseller. It was packaged quite nicely, as normal for apple. It's nice and light, and yeah, you can't do a whole lot with it, as it only has two ports on it, in addition to the power port. On the other hand, it's damn sexy.

The first pic is of it booting up for the first time, the second is a side view, with my big paw on it, and the last is Ralph, and a network guy here at Vanderbilt, checking it out. I'll get a chance to play with it later on today, and I'll get more photos.

-Sky

February 04, 2008 06:31 PM

So Dolemite, Ladymerlin and I went to JJ's to hang out on Saturday night. I brought my new usb enclosure/video feed, and he brought his HD Homerun. People, Dole wins on the cool toy category. We setup a set of 'Rabbit Ears' and hooked them to the HD homerun. We then hooked up a 10/100 switch between it and our two laptops. We downloaded the software, and started watching the over-the-air HD broadcasts that you can get in Nashville. It was amazing. We were watching a football game in HD on two different laptops while streaming it. The details were awesome, and the box is only about $170.00. I will wait a bit and pick one up, but seriously, if you have a MythTV box, GET ONE!

Dolemite was a little happy with himself.

January 15, 2008 03:19 PM

So I came back from lunch with Dole and LadyM, and found my office in this state. about 75% of the hardware that we ordered for the storage project is in, and they piled it around my desk in my office as a joke.

I spent about 30 minutes checking in the contents of the boxes, and piled them in the corner of my office. I still have another J610e and two dell servers to get in before I can start building the arrays. Whee!

January 14, 2008 07:37 PM

So, I was monkeying about with the MacBookPro, and put together this video for my run for presidency. I did it about 30 minutes before the meeting, so I was able to show it on the projector before we voted.


Skydog for Prez!

I think it helped, 'cause I won. :)

Every year, I try and bring in something like this, whether it's campaign signs, badges, or something to have a bit of fun with it.

If you can't poke fun at yourself, who can you?

December 18, 2007 02:00 AM

My new CF to IDE interface was sent to me as a 'Gift' per the information on the outside of the envelope. True to form, It was in a gift package. ironically, it fit perfectly. Where the hell do you find gift boxes this small?!?!

December 14, 2007 01:53 PM

Our photographer Kevin has posted a few preview pics of our wedding on his blog here. Thank you to all that could attend. More to come!

April 19, 2007 08:29 PM

I walked into the studio this morning and saw this:



... and I thought to myself.. I have a pretty cool job.

February 27, 2007 04:01 PM

By now, most of you know I'm getting married soon. We have a wedding site up at www.baudburn.com/wedding that you take a look at. Our pictures turned out beautifully.

That is all.

January 31, 2007 03:43 PM

After speaking with many friends of mine, I have informally determined that around 20% of the people I know voted. The overwhelming reason for this lack of showing at the polls: Apathy.

I can understand to some degree, why people would feel fed up and no longer care. A multitude of incidents ranging from the stolen election of 2000 to diebold's "malfunctioning" electronic voting systems make it feel like the elections are rigged. On top of that, the complete domination of the presidency, house, and senate further propagate the feeling of disillusionment my friends (who are not surprisingly largely progressive) feel.

Of the 10-15 people I asked who didn't vote, the overwhelming response was either that their vote doesn't matter, so why bother. In an odd way, it makes me think of Voltaire's famous quote: "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible". Taking the quote a little bit further, it's equally true that if no snowflake ever shows up, an avalanche cannot occur. No change happens if all of the little snowflakes, all 10-15 of them, stay home because they think they don't matter.

I'll admit, I'm exhausted too. I care too much, and probably out of self interest. During the last election, a friend quoted a chapter from Moby Dick called "The Monkey Rope". You can find it here.

It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we proceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both ends; fast to Queequeg's broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time, were wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both usage and honor demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should drag me down to his wake. So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature united us. Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I any way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond entailed.

November 07, 2006 11:53 PM

Today is one of only a handful of days you'll get in your life to have a tangible say about our government. Voting is expressing your opinion of your government. If you like Bush, the war in Iraq, the corruption, greed, and arrogance of the Republican party in the last 6 years, vote for Republicans. If you disapprove, show them how unhappy you are by balancing the field some. If I've learned anything from these 6 horrible years, it's that a party allowed to run freely and unchecked is dangerous and un-American.

This is a year where you can make a difference. So regardless of who you vote for, get out there and do it. Quit being so apathetic and make your voice heard.

November 07, 2006 03:26 PM

Well, it's day three back at work, and it's about time I lifted my veil of silence about the trip and the experience.

As you may have gathered from my previous two posts, Taiwan was incredible. From eating delicious food and fruit daily, to singing karaoke for 6 hours straight, to strolling the night markets, the place had a feeling unlike anything I've experienced here in the US. It was beautiful.

Rather than try (and fail) at going into any kind of detail about some of the adventures we had, I'll talk about just one... the Shrimping experience. In Taipei, we went to a "restaurant" where you rent a fishing pole by the hour and catch live shrimp out of a big pool. We did just that for three hours while sipping on various libations including Taiwan beer, star-fruit drink, boss coffee, and Pocari sweat. It was like heaven on earth.

When your time is up, you can pay them to cook the shrimp for you, or fire up the provided broiler and do it yourself. We obviously chose option B, and they were delicious! I did feel bad for the shrimp when they started flapping around trying in vain to escape the heat of the broiler, but we enjoyed them thoroughly, so their deaths were not in vain.

For those of you who are following along at home, I failed to gain 10 lbs while I was there. In fact, I lost a pound or two. I'm baffled.

Plenty of pictures for your viewing pleasure in the gallery!

October 18, 2006 10:11 PM