This year I started a few projects. I'd actually been rummaging them through my head for the past few weeks. Last nite I started them (figures, the night before Halloween).
1. I picked up a fogger at one of those seasonal halloween stores. pretty cool, but the fog drifts. So now I started making a fog chiller.
2. I'm making a large-hand to go with my grim-reaper outfit. Its actually on the end of a piece of pvc. But it has a palm built into it so I can place candy there and they can take it out of the hand. I made it out of copper wire framing and foam (the insulation-spray kind). Most of it was dry last nite, but it had expanded. So this morning I cut some of it off/out, and sprayed more in the gaps where it needed it. If the foam hardens enough today I'll be able to get home early and hit it with some black paint and be able to use it tonite.
3. A ghost. I picked up one of those white skeleton heads (filled with foam) from the store, and got some cheese cloth from Lowes. I'll string together a couple coat hangers, stick the head on top, throw the cheese cloth all around, and hang it w/ a black light underneath.
4. I fired up kazaa and grabbed some halloween music off the net, and burned a cd. We'll throw that in the cd player and play the cd in the front of the house tonite.
I *did* take pictures throughout making this stuff so far. I grabbed them off the camera this morning. I'll put them up on a webpage (yet to be made) within a week or two. If anyone's interested, let me know I'll send you the URL.
For next year, I don't know what I'll do, except to try and start much earlier! I'm considering picking up a small air compressor so that I can make some pistons out of PVC and make some animatronic-type things. Don't yet know what though. Suggestions appreciated.
Used the beta and now the 8.0 release
on
Red Hat 8.0 Released
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I was lucky enough to snag the first 4 cd's over the weekend, so I've been playing with 8.0 for a few days now.
I had the beta release null installed on a box last week that I had tried too.
Anyway, as for 8.0, likes:
- the interface. switching between KDE and GNOME doesn't cause others looking at the desktop to be totally mystified. they both look similar, and it's been a long time coming that Redhat should've done this.
- mozilla. it's come a long way, and its turning into quite a browser.
- it installed nicely on all but one box - it didn't recognize the soundcard on a dell optiplex gx1p. running sndconfig manually after the install fixed that right up.
dislikes:
- no direct way to mount a win32 share from the desktop. Yes, I can start Konq and smb://somemachine, but can I right-click and mount it? Nope.
- no 'run' interface like win32. sorry, but I can window-key-R and type \\machine\sharename and I'm there. Can't do that with RH.
- xmms has mp3 play-ability removed. Fine, goto http://psyche.freshrpms.net/ and grab the rpm so it can play mp3's.
- dvd playback (mpg, avi, etc) - again, gotta go get more rpm's from freshrpms because default redhat8 doesn't have the capability.
Now, I realize that before the latest Win32 OS's came out, you had to go get an mp3 player. And most people, even though Windows XP can play them out of the box now, they probably go get winamp. (I do). So can I really bitch about redhat not playing mp3's out of the box?
Sure I can. In my opinion, Redhat could atleast buy the license to include this stuff, so that if I purchase the boxed set, and install it, that would have the capability built in. I can understand they don't want to pay for the people who are downloading the iso's for free.
I also came to the realization that even though all the apps have the same look and feel, running KDE apps under GNOME, or vise versa, doesn't always play nicely. Example: I like Kmail (specifically because of the filters, and it acts like Eudora). Anyway, I ran it under GNOME. It tried to view a jpg attachment someone sent by clicking on it, and it didn't happen. Switched to KDE (which I normally use 99% of the time) went to kmail, clicked on the attachment... bingo, it came right up.
Yes, there's probably a fix for this. But I'm sorry, I'm getting tired of having to tinker to get each linux box to act uniformally all the time. Between the two here at work, the 2 at home, and the dual boot laptop, it can take a lot of time tinkering with things to get them to work. Hopefully, w/ each release of redhat this will become less and less of an issue.
I've never understood *why* people want camera's around the entire house. How's a guy supposed to get some play on the couch during halftime of MNF if there's a camera there?
I've been thinking about doing something *very* similar to this. What I want is a cheap (~$100US) color LCD that I could physically mount anywhere in the house (that cat-5 is run to) to display misc photos taken with a digital camera stored on a fileserver in the house that's shared via smb/nfs/ftp.
The unit would preferably get everything it needs off of cat-5, or possibly cat5 and another strand of low voltage line for power.
I've not got much farther then shopping around for LCD's and running cat-5 through the walls. But that's how side projects go... slowly.
The NY Times had an article about people bringing their cell phones onto the trail. I threw up a mention of it, check it out here.
I can understand wanting to have it packed away in your gear for emergencies, people just need to turn the ringer off or turn the phone off while they're out.
We did this too. Two years ago we picked up two mountain bikes (one for me, one for my wife) from our tax return.
We've had a blast ever since. We setup a website MTBMadness (slash-based!) to put information online. We take the digital camera with us whenever we go riding, and put the pictures online.
We've since hooked up with local mountain bike groups, as well as state-wide and multi-state, so as to go on group rides.
It's a blast, and it will definitely get you into shape real quick. I still don't like uphill climbs, but the downhill that comes after one makes it all worth it.
That doesn't seem like much, given that I'm assuming LA's costofliving index is probably quite high.
The one thing I did notice - it looks like if a person's language skills are very good they have the chance to receive a lot more cash then for advanced degrees!
See, that's the majority assumption, that they're underpaid.
In a lot of places, they're not.
Think about it - they're paid 12 months of the year, but many don't work that. The school year isn't a full year.
Many are under-educated. However, the job security is extremely high after you've put in your dues. The salaries are low when you start, but once you're vested, your salary is pretty good and your unionized (for lack of a better word) if you're in some of the larger districts. Pretty good job security!
And don't even mention those with tenor at the universities, some of those idiots really abuse the position they're in. (and yes, obviously there are those who busted their asses to get their, have student loans out the wazzu and fully deserve to be where they are).
I think for most teachers, it's not about the money - they have a talent for teaching, or a love, and that's what they do.
And besides, I think for most teachers, its the BS that drives them off - the paperwork, lack of good tools of the trade, the regulations, the *teaching to get the kids past the proficiencies tests* instead of teaching them the information.
The vast majority of wealthy people either lucked into their money or were born into it.
That's a huge generalization. And what's wealthy? Someone who makes double the average US income? Most IT geeks passed that during the boom a few years ago. I know I wasn't born wealthy, and I make more then the average, as do most people I know:)
Some guy sitting in a leather chair in a spacious office pushing paper around is not working hard. The guy who built his office is the one who worked hard.
Oh that's a poor comparison. What if that guy behind the desk started the company 50 years ago - what if it's a construction company - that built that same building. This owner risked it all - his house, his financials, everything, back then, to start that business years ago. He busted his nuts.
Is there no time where someone who's paid their dues can sit back and reap the rewards?
That'd be a true statement. But I've also learned to be more patient, and learned to atleast tolerate the politics involved (when there shouldn't be any involved in the first place).
Unfortunately, the longer I've worked, the more I've come to realize that *many* (too many) companies are run exactly like this.
Infact, I've not yet worked for one, or contracted for one, that wasn't.
It's frustrating to work for these places. Sometimes degrading, but most of all back breaking. Nothing's ever finished 100%, there's no time for proper design, nor implementation. And sometimes you just have to wonder what the fuck goes on behind the door in those management meetings!!
I think I'm slowly giving up. I'd always hoped that I'd find that "one place" where things were done *right*. Each job I take, I get a little closer. But I'm not there yet.
Luckily I'm approaching that middle-management-age, so at the right place, I may be able to change things for the better (for the developers). That'd be a huge accomplishment, because at most places all the other department's (publications, marketing) are hindered with similar management/policy/timeframe problems. Except they sometimes get a sense of finality - when a print publication is printed and sent - they can sigh in relief. Ours - well, there's always something that needs to be changed on one of the websites, the code, the network, security policy, servers, hardware... just add it to the to-do list. It's the neverending beast.
I'm glad this question came up, since I'm undecided about forming a corporation or not; it isn't clear to me what the befits are for a single-person consultanting developer.
To sum it up: Liability protection. If the business is an LLC (in some states) or a corp. then the entity is sued, not you.
Incorporating has it's benefits, but also it's drawbacks (paperwork!! scheduled taxes throughtout the year, etc).
You should seriously look into an LLC. Depending on the state that you are in, it may give you exact/similar liability protection similar to what incorporating would give you.
And LLC income/expenses are easy to do - just add your income from your LLC to your taxes, and deduct the expenses. Turbotax handles it all real nice, but it's not hard to do if you keep your receipts and documentation.
You could try contacting your state bar association and see if they have any pamphlets/information about corporations/llc's. Also, contact your secretary of state. Some have Small Business Development Centers that will give you a starting pack to find out what you'd need to do to from a corp or LLC, and what VENDORS LICENSES you will need to obtain. Some will even give you free counseling on your options and such.
What firewire are you using on your computer, and what OS?
I did the same thing, I've got an 80GB maxtor in my ADS case. So far I've only used it with Win2k boxes, and PCI f/w cards (again, ADS). Never had any problems, and it's quick.
I now have a Dell Inspiron 8000, with Redhat 7.2 on it w/ firewire port. I'm tempted to try the ADS firewire drive with it, but I can't risk losing data. So I'm curious how you're using yours.
If I can backup everything on the drive, then I can risk trying this with Linux. Until then I need to play it safe.
They're open. Look at the SF feature requests, bug list and patches submitted. Then checkout the repository on slashcode. With slash's plugin system you'll see more functionality come with time.
Are you volunteering?:)
Re:Slashdot should run on donations
on
Slashdot Updates
·
· Score: 1
>What it SHOULD run on is donations.
Are you high?
Slashdot is run by a corporation. How the hell are they going to forcast their annual budget with *donations*?
Re:Ads are not necessarily bad...
on
Slashdot Updates
·
· Score: 1
>The ThinkGeek ads are great
Same here. I don't normally check their site for new stuff. But the adds have caught my attention a number of times, enough so that I clicked on it and went looking at that product, and then others that caught my attention.
In my mind, that is *exactly* how any advertising campaign should work.
The OSDN navbar I did notice fairly quickly. Afterall, it's been on slash for a while now. It's only annoying in that it takes up valuable screen space, making me scroll more. That I don't like. But the thing at the bottom of the page, or shorten it up a lot.
Re:Please inact a subscription service!
on
Slashdot Updates
·
· Score: 1
It's got more pics than that maxim site referenced above, and it has info on her character, bio, etc.
BTW, someone just posted an mpeg of the "coed-handshower" scene in alt.binaries.multimedia. If you weren't able to see the show, go download it for a preview.
I've got a Tyan Tiger2 ATX that has always driven me nuts with DMA errors in the kernel. I've used redhat7.0 & redhat7.1 on this box, and I'm even testing kernel 2.4.9 now. I've got DMA errors with it too.
There was a thread in comp.os.linux.hardware asking about IDE DMA errors recently (subject was "IDE DMA errors... still???", msg id m34rqfv71z.fsf@tapir.uwaterloo.ca). It was interesting. It led me to change some options in the BIOS. It seems to have helped a bit. But I'm still seeing errors.
I've tried different ram, different cables, different drives, different cards (promise ultra100, SIG Ultra ide PCI), different kernels, different drivers (thanks for all the hard work andre, it is appreciated).
It's not easily traceable, and given all the different things I've tried, there's still more that I could muck with.
But at this point, I'm tired of it and I don't have the time to continue messing with it and screwing up filesystems. I am half tempted to either wait till 2.4.10 or get a new motherboard & cpu (yes, Athlon) and see if my problems clear up.
Slashdot Mirror
This year I started a few projects. I'd actually been rummaging them through my head for the past few weeks. Last nite I started them (figures, the night before Halloween).
1. I picked up a fogger at one of those seasonal halloween stores. pretty cool, but the fog drifts. So now I started making a fog chiller.
2. I'm making a large-hand to go with my grim-reaper outfit. Its actually on the end of a piece of pvc. But it has a palm built into it so I can place candy there and they can take it out of the hand. I made it out of copper wire framing and foam (the insulation-spray kind). Most of it was dry last nite, but it had expanded. So this morning I cut some of it off/out, and sprayed more in the gaps where it needed it. If the foam hardens enough today I'll be able to get home early and hit it with some black paint and be able to use it tonite.
3. A ghost. I picked up one of those white skeleton heads (filled with foam) from the store, and got some cheese cloth from Lowes. I'll string together a couple coat hangers, stick the head on top, throw the cheese cloth all around, and hang it w/ a black light underneath.
4. I fired up kazaa and grabbed some halloween music off the net, and burned a cd. We'll throw that in the cd player and play the cd in the front of the house tonite.
I *did* take pictures throughout making this stuff so far. I grabbed them off the camera this morning. I'll put them up on a webpage (yet to be made) within a week or two. If anyone's interested, let me know I'll send you the URL.
For next year, I don't know what I'll do, except to try and start much earlier! I'm considering picking up a small air compressor so that I can make some pistons out of PVC and make some animatronic-type things. Don't yet know what though. Suggestions appreciated.
I was lucky enough to snag the first 4 cd's over the weekend, so I've been playing with 8.0 for a few days now.
I had the beta release null installed on a box last week that I had tried too.
Anyway, as for 8.0,
likes:
- the interface. switching between KDE and GNOME doesn't cause others looking at the desktop to be totally mystified. they both look similar, and it's been a long time coming that Redhat should've done this.
- mozilla. it's come a long way, and its turning into quite a browser.
- it installed nicely on all but one box - it didn't recognize the soundcard on a dell optiplex gx1p. running sndconfig manually after the install fixed that right up.
dislikes:
- no direct way to mount a win32 share from the desktop. Yes, I can start Konq and smb://somemachine, but can I right-click and mount it? Nope.
- no 'run' interface like win32. sorry, but I can window-key-R and type \\machine\sharename
and I'm there. Can't do that with RH.
- xmms has mp3 play-ability removed. Fine, goto http://psyche.freshrpms.net/ and grab the rpm so it can play mp3's.
- dvd playback (mpg, avi, etc) - again, gotta go get more rpm's from freshrpms because default redhat8 doesn't have the capability.
Now, I realize that before the latest Win32 OS's came out, you had to go get an mp3 player. And most people, even though Windows XP can play them out of the box now, they probably go get winamp. (I do). So can I really bitch about redhat not playing mp3's out of the box?
Sure I can. In my opinion, Redhat could atleast buy the license to include this stuff, so that if I purchase the boxed set, and install it, that would have the capability built in. I can understand they don't want to pay for the people who are downloading the iso's for free.
I also came to the realization that even though all the apps have the same look and feel, running KDE apps under GNOME, or vise versa, doesn't always play nicely. Example: I like Kmail (specifically because of the filters, and it acts like Eudora). Anyway, I ran it under GNOME. It tried to view a jpg attachment someone sent by clicking on it, and it didn't happen. Switched to KDE (which I normally use 99% of the time) went to kmail, clicked on the attachment... bingo, it came right up.
Yes, there's probably a fix for this. But I'm sorry, I'm getting tired of having to tinker to get each linux box to act uniformally all the time. Between the two here at work, the 2 at home, and the dual boot laptop, it can take a lot of time tinkering with things to get them to work. Hopefully, w/ each release of redhat this will become less and less of an issue.
Anyway, just my $.02....
tf23
I've never understood *why* people want camera's around the entire house. How's a guy supposed to get some play on the couch during halftime of MNF if there's a camera there?
I've been thinking about doing something *very* similar to this. What I want is a cheap (~$100US) color LCD that I could physically mount anywhere in the house (that cat-5 is run to) to display misc photos taken with a digital camera stored on a fileserver in the house that's shared via smb/nfs/ftp.
The unit would preferably get everything it needs off of cat-5, or possibly cat5 and another strand of low voltage line for power.
I've not got much farther then shopping around for LCD's and running cat-5 through the walls. But that's how side projects go... slowly.
The NY Times had an article about people bringing their cell phones onto the trail. I threw up a mention of it, check it out here.
I can understand wanting to have it packed away in your gear for emergencies, people just need to turn the ringer off or turn the phone off while they're out.
We did this too. Two years ago we picked up two mountain bikes (one for me, one for my wife) from our tax return.
We've had a blast ever since. We setup a website MTBMadness (slash-based!) to put information online. We take the digital camera with us whenever we go riding, and put the pictures online.
We've since hooked up with local mountain bike groups, as well as state-wide and multi-state, so as to go on group rides.
It's a blast, and it will definitely get you into shape real quick. I still don't like uphill climbs, but the downhill that comes after one makes it all worth it.
That doesn't seem like much, given that I'm assuming LA's costofliving index is probably quite high.
The one thing I did notice - it looks like if a person's language skills are very good they have the chance to receive a lot more cash then for advanced degrees!
Heh, chalk up one more reason for a built in spell checker for slash ;)
If only they got paid more...
See, that's the majority assumption, that they're underpaid.
In a lot of places, they're not.
Think about it - they're paid 12 months of the year, but many don't work that. The school year isn't a full year.
Many are under-educated. However, the job security is extremely high after you've put in your dues. The salaries are low when you start, but once you're vested, your salary is pretty good and your unionized (for lack of a better word) if you're in some of the larger districts. Pretty good job security!
And don't even mention those with tenor at the universities, some of those idiots really abuse the position they're in. (and yes, obviously there are those who busted their asses to get their, have student loans out the wazzu and fully deserve to be where they are).
I think for most teachers, it's not about the money - they have a talent for teaching, or a love, and that's what they do.
And besides, I think for most teachers, its the BS that drives them off - the paperwork, lack of good tools of the trade, the regulations, the *teaching to get the kids past the proficiencies tests* instead of teaching them the information.
The vast majority of wealthy people either lucked into their money or were born into it.
:)
That's a huge generalization. And what's wealthy? Someone who makes double the average US income? Most IT geeks passed that during the boom a few years ago. I know I wasn't born wealthy, and I make more then the average, as do most people I know
Some guy sitting in a leather chair in a spacious office pushing paper around is not working hard. The guy who built his office is the one who worked hard.
Oh that's a poor comparison. What if that guy behind the desk started the company 50 years ago - what if it's a construction company - that built that same building. This owner risked it all - his house, his financials, everything, back then, to start that business years ago. He busted his nuts.
Is there no time where someone who's paid their dues can sit back and reap the rewards?
That'd be a true statement. But I've also learned to be more patient, and learned to atleast tolerate the politics involved (when there shouldn't be any involved in the first place).
Unfortunately, the longer I've worked, the more I've come to realize that *many* (too many) companies are run exactly like this.
Infact, I've not yet worked for one, or contracted for one, that wasn't.
It's frustrating to work for these places. Sometimes degrading, but most of all back breaking. Nothing's ever finished 100%, there's no time for proper design, nor implementation. And sometimes you just have to wonder what the fuck goes on behind the door in those management meetings!!
I think I'm slowly giving up. I'd always hoped that I'd find that "one place" where things were done *right*. Each job I take, I get a little closer. But I'm not there yet.
Luckily I'm approaching that middle-management-age, so at the right place, I may be able to change things for the better (for the developers). That'd be a huge accomplishment, because at most places all the other department's (publications, marketing) are hindered with similar management/policy/timeframe problems. Except they sometimes get a sense of finality - when a print publication is printed and sent - they can sigh in relief. Ours - well, there's always something that needs to be changed on one of the websites, the code, the network, security policy, servers, hardware... just add it to the to-do list. It's the neverending beast.
What license did you use?
It seems odd that any entity that is using freely licensed code, for free, could demand anything at all regarding the code.
The biggest con is expense, a document of incorporation can cost upwards of $10,000
What state is that $10k from? Damn, in Ohio it's a $345 fee to file your articles of incorporation!
I'm glad this question came up, since I'm undecided about forming a corporation or not; it isn't clear to me what the befits are for a single-person consultanting developer.
To sum it up: Liability protection. If the business is an LLC (in some states) or a corp. then the entity is sued, not you.
Incorporating has it's benefits, but also it's drawbacks (paperwork!! scheduled taxes throughtout the year, etc).
You should seriously look into an LLC. Depending on the state that you are in, it may give you exact/similar liability protection similar to what incorporating would give you.
And LLC income/expenses are easy to do - just add your income from your LLC to your taxes, and deduct the expenses. Turbotax handles it all real nice, but it's not hard to do if you keep your receipts and documentation.
You could try contacting your state bar association and see if they have any pamphlets/information about corporations/llc's. Also, contact your secretary of state. Some have Small Business Development Centers that will give you a starting pack to find out what you'd need to do to from a corp or LLC, and what VENDORS LICENSES you will need to obtain. Some will even give you free counseling on your options and such.
Also, there's http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/ and irs.gov
Good luck. I just went through this a few months ago forming my own company.
What happens when or if these notions are applied to string theory with multiple other dimensions?
I would love to hear what Steven Hawking would have to say about this.
What firewire are you using on your computer, and what OS?
I did the same thing, I've got an 80GB maxtor in my ADS case. So far I've only used it with Win2k boxes, and PCI f/w cards (again, ADS). Never had any problems, and it's quick.
I now have a Dell Inspiron 8000, with Redhat 7.2 on it w/ firewire port. I'm tempted to try the ADS firewire drive with it, but I can't risk losing data. So I'm curious how you're using yours.
If I can backup everything on the drive, then I can risk trying this with Linux. Until then I need to play it safe.
They're open. Look at the SF feature requests, bug list and patches submitted. Then checkout the repository on slashcode. With slash's plugin system you'll see more functionality come with time.
:)
Are you volunteering?
>What it SHOULD run on is donations.
Are you high?
Slashdot is run by a corporation. How the hell are they going to forcast their annual budget with *donations*?
>The ThinkGeek ads are great
Same here. I don't normally check their site for new stuff. But the adds have caught my attention a number of times, enough so that I clicked on it and went looking at that product, and then others that caught my attention.
In my mind, that is *exactly* how any advertising campaign should work.
The OSDN navbar I did notice fairly quickly. Afterall, it's been on slash for a while now. It's only annoying in that it takes up valuable screen space, making me scroll more. That I don't like. But the thing at the bottom of the page, or shorten it up a lot.
There's a forumzilla plugin for slash2.1/2.2.
Here's the main link to a seemingly pretty good fan site: http://www.time-scape.com/jolene/
US Mirror or AUS Mirror
It's got more pics than that maxim site referenced above, and it has info on her character, bio, etc.
BTW, someone just posted an mpeg of the "coed-handshower" scene in alt.binaries.multimedia. If you weren't able to see the show, go download it for a preview.I've got a Tyan Tiger2 ATX that has always driven me nuts with DMA errors in the kernel. I've used redhat7.0 & redhat7.1 on this box, and I'm even testing kernel 2.4.9 now. I've got DMA errors with it too.
... still???", msg id m34rqfv71z.fsf@tapir.uwaterloo.ca). It was interesting. It led me to change some options in the BIOS. It seems to have helped a bit. But I'm still seeing errors.
There was a thread in comp.os.linux.hardware asking about IDE DMA errors recently (subject was "IDE DMA errors
I've tried different ram, different cables, different drives, different cards (promise ultra100, SIG Ultra ide PCI), different kernels, different drivers (thanks for all the hard work andre, it is appreciated).
It's not easily traceable, and given all the different things I've tried, there's still more that I could muck with.
But at this point, I'm tired of it and I don't have the time to continue messing with it and screwing up filesystems. I am half tempted to either wait till 2.4.10 or get a new motherboard & cpu (yes, Athlon) and see if my problems clear up.
Exactly - and only dimm slot. Which would be OK if it took a 512 - but it doesn't:
"One 144-pin DIMM slot for PC100/133Mhz SDRAM. Upgradeable to 256MB. "
Upgrade the video, let me put a 512 dimm in it that's work, drop the entire price a bit and I'd consider buying the kit to build one.