Planet Xdroop

xed

2010-09-02T03:20:21+00:00

VIDEO: Kitteh Falls in Hamper

2010-09-01T18:18:12+00:00

Shared by David
Exactly what it says it is.

Kitteh haz a smart mouf on him.

Exactly what it says it is.

xdroop: I don't feel tardy. #VanHalen

2010-09-01T18:01:51+00:00

xdroop: I don't feel tardy. #VanHalen

xdroop: Every time. Nice white shirt and I spill something on it.

2010-09-01T16:45:47+00:00

xdroop: Every time. Nice white shirt and I spill something on it.

xdroop: Overtaking, emphasis on the "over": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFgGcfgjZ0&feature=player_embedded

2010-09-01T15:20:42+00:00

xdroop: Overtaking, emphasis on the "over": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFgGcfgjZ0&feature=player_embedded

xdroop: SO, BASICALLY, IT'S LIKE A CONTENT DISTRIBUTION NETWORK FOR PARKING TICKETS! http://itsthisforthat.com/

2010-09-01T02:19:47+00:00

xdroop: SO, BASICALLY, IT'S LIKE A CONTENT DISTRIBUTION NETWORK FOR PARKING TICKETS! http://itsthisforthat.com/

Force India Raw Speed

2010-08-31T23:37:17+00:00

Interesting note of the weekend: straight-line speed does not solve all problems:

On a side note, both Force India cars at Spa were still 6km/h quicker down the straight than any of the title contenders.

xdroop: Good news from the school. Daring to hope again.

2010-08-31T17:32:00+00:00

xdroop: Good news from the school. Daring to hope again.

xdroop: @snobiwan I envy you that.

2010-08-31T16:36:55+00:00

xdroop: @snobiwan I envy you that.

xdroop: @snobiwan Permanent? Yes. Positive?... depends on which side of the desk you are sitting on.

2010-08-31T15:17:27+00:00

xdroop: @snobiwan Permanent? Yes. Positive?... depends on which side of the desk you are sitting on.

xdroop: "... fanboys with little insight to give..." <sigh>

2010-08-31T03:16:25+00:00

xdroop: "... fanboys with little insight to give..." <sigh>

Homebrew Cray-1A | ChrisFenton.com

2010-08-31T03:07:11+00:00

xdroop: Oooh. A "Nike" power outage.

2010-08-30T15:39:54+00:00

xdroop: Oooh. A "Nike" power outage.

Penn and Teller take on vaccines

2010-08-30T14:23:27+00:00

I have long beaten the drum against the antivaxxers: people who falsely claim that vaccines cause autism, or are loaded with toxins. These groups are loud, in many cases vicious, and all have one thing in common: they are wrong, wrong, wrong. The evidence is overwhelming that vaccines don’t cause autism, for example. We know they don’t.

Despite that, it’s clear that the emotional arguments of antivax groups have some traction among people, especially new parents who are understandably concerned and nervous about their children’s health. We here on the reality side of things can talk facts, statistics, and evidence all we want, but to penetrate through to reason we sometimes have to make our arguments more visceral. More demonstrative.

And that’s why I loved the recent episode of Penn & Teller’s show about vaccines. They used facts and figures, but they also use humor and emotion, and it’s really effective. In a brilliant move, they opened their show with a fantastic demonstration of just why we need to vaccinate our kids [very NSFW language]:

I love it! That is precisely right: even if vaccines caused the woes antivaxxers claim — and as Penn says clearly, they don’t — by sheer numbers it’s clear that vaccinations are still critical.

I can’t stop people from listening to the nonsense the antivaxxers spew, but I can hope that the more we talk about it — and the more we show it — the more people will realize that the antivaxxers are not just wrong, but doing something unconscionable: putting our children’s lives at risk.

Related posts:

- Immunization FAQ and some nice stories
- How safe is Gardasil, and a new antivax FAQ
- Antivaxxers take note: vaccines stop polio outbreak in Tajikistan
- BREAKING: Australian antivax group slammed for "misleading and inaccurate information"
- The vaccine song

xdroop: Turns out I don't have carrier pigeon service. Sorry.

2010-08-30T02:24:05+00:00

xdroop: Turns out I don't have carrier pigeon service. Sorry.

xdroop: Have I mentioned that RIM changed all the connectors into the new Blackberry so that NONE of six cables I already own fit any more? Nice.

2010-08-29T20:52:45+00:00

xdroop: Have I mentioned that RIM changed all the connectors into the new Blackberry so that NONE of six cables I already own fit any more? Nice.

xdroop: Phone battery died. Send urgent messages via carrier pigeon for the next two hours.

2010-08-29T20:41:38+00:00

xdroop: Phone battery died. Send urgent messages via carrier pigeon for the next two hours.

xdroop: @mWare only for very low values of "interesting".

2010-08-29T01:16:10+00:00

xdroop: @mWare only for very low values of "interesting".

xdroop: @mWare you get kicked out of the most interesting places.

2010-08-29T00:23:48+00:00

xdroop: @mWare you get kicked out of the most interesting places.

I Like BOB-TV

2010-08-28T20:01:51+00:00

But more importantly, Alex likes Bob-TV.

Reasons why Bob-TV is better than The Wiggles:

Although they are both music shows, the Bob-TV is better music.
Having Bob-TV on in the background is like having the radio on from when I was going to school.
Most importantly it takes Alex three hours to watch all three Bob-TV episodes in the PVR rather than only the one hour required to exhaust the Wiggles episodes in the PVR.

One of the current crop of Bob-TV episodes in our PVR includes Rush's Tom Sawyer in them.

xdroop: @snobiwan me, because I still have a 1998 Mazda 626 LX V6 for sale.

2010-08-27T14:06:43+00:00

xdroop: @snobiwan me, because I still have a 1998 Mazda 626 LX V6 for sale.

xdroop: "In my experience, when programmers and system administrators fight, it's because they're bored." http://tinyurl.com/39gnasd

2010-08-27T14:02:40+00:00

xdroop: "In my experience, when programmers and system administrators fight, it's because they're bored." http://tinyurl.com/39gnasd

xdroop: Welcome to hell. Here's your secured-beyond-useless KDE login session.

2010-08-26T21:08:33+00:00

xdroop: Welcome to hell. Here's your secured-beyond-useless KDE login session.

xdroop: Oh, goody, time to update Windows Defender. Now my day is truly complete.

2010-08-26T01:35:12+00:00

xdroop: Oh, goody, time to update Windows Defender. Now my day is truly complete.

xdroop: Alex's first split chin. One stitch. Three adults and one DQ required to get it in to him.

2010-08-25T23:31:33+00:00

xdroop: Alex's first split chin. One stitch. Three adults and one DQ required to get it in to him.

xdroop: Nothing quite says "day off" like rocket science at the grocery store. Apparently.

2010-08-25T18:50:41+00:00

xdroop: Nothing quite says "day off" like rocket science at the grocery store. Apparently.

HSRP Tutorial | AlwaysTheNetwork

2010-08-25T02:23:29+00:00

Network Dictionary - Bandwidth Fairy | My Etherealmind

2010-08-24T15:55:19+00:00

define bandwidth fairy

Yum Repository | Utter Ramblings

2010-08-24T14:15:06+00:00

10 boot time parameters you should know about the Linux kernel « techblog

2010-08-24T14:14:41+00:00

xdroop: @mWare how about now?

2010-08-23T22:13:06+00:00

xdroop: @mWare how about now?

xdroop: The closer the #Green party gets to being electable, the lower the likelihood I'll vote for them. #Politics

2010-08-23T02:18:29+00:00

xdroop: The closer the #Green party gets to being electable, the lower the likelihood I'll vote for them. #Politics

xdroop: @_tech_stuff_ Yeah, you gotta watch those bears.

2010-08-22T15:55:37+00:00

xdroop: @_tech_stuff_ Yeah, you gotta watch those bears.

xdroop: Fish. Fish is happening. (Are happening?) Fish fish fish fish fish. Oh and yes the cat box needs cleaning. Sorry you asked?

2010-08-22T02:57:18+00:00

xdroop: Fish. Fish is happening. (Are happening?) Fish fish fish fish fish. Oh and yes the cat box needs cleaning. Sorry you asked?

xdroop: http://twitpic.com/2gvefz - Going to the park

2010-08-21T17:00:10+00:00

xdroop: http://twitpic.com/2gvefz - Going to the park

The Eight Fallacies of Distributed Computing

2010-08-20T20:16:19+00:00

Is 10 years of RHEL support still sufficient ?

2010-08-20T07:31:17+00:00

Almost exactly a year ago, I posted a blog article titled Is 7 years of RHEL support still sufficient ?. In that article I make the case that with RHEL major releases moving from 1.5 years to 3 years and virtualization reducing the importance of hardware life cycles, RHEL support should be extended beyond 7 years.

Yesterday Red Hat announced that it did just that. From today Red Hat offers RHEL Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) on top of normal subscriptions for specific versions and variants. Meaning that for RHEL3 only i686 AS/ES and for RHEL4 i686 and x86_64 AS/ES and ia64 AS are taken into consideration and are thus more expensive than regular support. No pricing information is available yet.

As a result of this the timeline of RHEL releases looks like this:

Click the picture to see it in all its glory

Honestly, the announcement comes too late for a lot of companies that already have planned and executed (sometimes painful) RHEL3 migrations. Extended support could in some of these cases be a more cost-effective solution. On the other hand, with this late announcement Red Hat might have anticipated lowering the number of applicants at the start of the offering. And a sufficient high price tag will influence decision makers even more...

An offering like this also risks that application vendors might hold on to (too) old RHEL releases rather than spending time testing and fixing their software (often agents) on the latest RHEL release. Which is one of the most important reasons why companies delay implementing newer RHEL releases today. Which makes Open Source alternatives more attractive (as they do not suffer from that). Companies that suffer from this delayed availability of proprietary software should complain loudly to vendors and threaten to move (or simply move) to alternatives.

All in all, this new support option clearly strengthens Red Hat's position in the wider Enterprise OS market and makes their virtualization product (RHEV) offering even more attractive compared to the competition.

And to answer the question, yes, 10 years of support should suffice for some time ;-)

What different sorting algorithms sound like

2010-08-20T02:46:16+00:00

Shared by David
CLick through to play the videos.

CLick through to play the videos.

We're number 7!

2010-08-19T22:47:38+00:00

Idiot journalist:

But the good news for Canadians is that we are no far behind on the ranking — 7th out of 100 countries.

No, wrong, thanks for playing.

In lists like this your position doesn't matter so much as your distance from whatever you think your achievable score is.

Look, if these countries were in a line up and the first ten countries got something like I dunno a sane politician, then yes being 7th is pretty good. But being 11th is just as bad as being 100th -- all you get for turning up is wasted time.

But since this list we are talking about involves some kind of scoring, what's important is both the total score and the scores of those ahead (and, if you care, behind) of us. Otherwise your "position on the list" is completely meaningless.

Let's consider a hypothetical list of 100 countries where we come last. But the countries are scored on a scale of 1 to 100, and the first 99 countries get 100, and we get 99. So just looking at the list we'd say "we are the last one! boo hoo!" and "we are the only country to score below average! Boo hoo!" But the fact that we are only 1% out of the logjam for #1 means we really did pretty well.

But what do you expect -- the IS the media we are talking about.

(Posted here because the Citizen's signup thing hates me.)

xdroop: Hey wild, Twitter has https support.

2010-08-19T21:44:33+00:00

xdroop: Hey wild, Twitter has https support.

xdroop: Tthe definition of a successful meeting is that when the meeting is done, it need never occur again.

2010-08-19T15:16:03+00:00

xdroop: Tthe definition of a successful meeting is that when the meeting is done, it need never occur again.

xdroop: is making gravel by banging rocks together.

2010-08-18T21:01:45+00:00

xdroop: is making gravel by banging rocks together.

xdroop: somehow got a #ratepoint subscription through #eNom. Told them twice I don't want it but they keep billing. #makeitstop

2010-08-18T16:20:11+00:00

xdroop: somehow got a #ratepoint subscription through #eNom. Told them twice I don't want it but they keep billing. #makeitstop

xdroop: Water back on, if slow. But slow I can deal with.

2010-08-18T00:43:50+00:00

xdroop: Water back on, if slow. But slow I can deal with.

xdroop: Twitter confirms, Morgans Grant has no water.

2010-08-18T00:20:48+00:00

xdroop: Twitter confirms, Morgans Grant has no water.

xdroop: 311 is busy. It isn't just me. I have three flushes left -- better make 'em count.

2010-08-17T23:45:21+00:00

xdroop: 311 is busy. It isn't just me. I have three flushes left -- better make 'em count.

xdroop: Totally lost water pressure. Morgans Grant Kanata Ottawa. Just me? It was working two hours ago.

2010-08-17T23:42:54+00:00

xdroop: Totally lost water pressure. Morgans Grant Kanata Ottawa. Just me? It was working two hours ago.

The art of physical, outer perimeter security | IT Security | TechRepublic.com

2010-08-17T22:33:44+00:00

Mendez On Spezza

2010-08-17T22:37:55+00:00

Sportsnet's Ian Mendez takes the Ottawa Media to the woodshed for their treatment of Jason Spezza.

HOWTO - Delegate a Subdomain (a.k.a. subzone)

2010-08-16T20:37:32+00:00

Complicated Mechanisms Explained in simple animations

2010-08-16T18:16:52+00:00

Radial Engines

Radial engines are used in aircrafts having propeller connected to the shaft delivering power in order to produce thrust its basic mechanism is as follows

Steam engine Principle

Steam engine once used in locomotives was based on the reciprocating principle as shown below

Sewing Machine

Maltese Cross Mechanism

this type of mechanism is used in clocks to power the second hand movement.

Manual Transmission Mechanism

The mechanism also called as “stick shift” is used in cars to change gears mannually

Constant Velocity Joint

This mechanism is used in the front wheel drive cars

Torpedo-Boat destroyer System

This system is used to destroy fleet in naval military operations.

Rotary Engine

Also called as Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine has a unique design that converts pressure into rotating motion instead of reciprocating pistons

xdroop: is barf^Wpaper bag testing.

2010-08-16T15:04:31+00:00

xdroop: is barf^Wpaper bag testing.

Nightmare Scenario

2010-08-15T21:00:25+00:00

Good news, everyone! The Ottawa Senators are the butt of a joke that Time Magazine made!

Of course, an unsexy World Series (think San Diego Padres-Texas Rangers) or hockey Finals matchup (Edmonton Oilers-Ottawa Senators!) could quickly halt some of this momentum.

Now traditionally I've said the league's nightmare scenario is an Ottawa-Vancouver final, but hey, thanks for the mention.

How big is your red zone?

2010-08-15T09:33:00+00:00

Every activity worth doing has a learning curve. Riding a bike, learning to read, using Facebook... the early days are rarely nothing but fun.

Take a look at this three part chart. The first shows how much joy someone gets out of an activity. Over time, as we discover new things and get better at it, our satisfaction increases. At some point, there's a bump when we get quite good at it, and then, in most activities, it fades because we get bored. (In the top graph I've also added the Dip, showing the extra joy from being an expert, but that's irrelevant to this discussion).

The second graph shows the hassle of that same activity. Riding a bike, for example, is horrible at first. Skinned knees, bruised egos. Twitter is really easy to use the first few times, so not so much red ink there.

The third graph is just the two overlaid. That zone on the left, the red zone, is the gap between the initial hassle and the initial joy. My contention is that the only reason we ever get through that gap is that someone on the other side (the little green circle) is rooting us on, or telling us stories of how great it is on the other side.

The bigger your red zone, the louder your green dot needs to be. Every successful product or passion is either easy to get started on or comes with a built-in motivator to keep you moving until you're in. This is so easy to overlook, because of course you're already in...

xdroop: @mWare select D from table where A=foo and B=foo and C=foo; (where A,B,C,D are all integers, and there's an index on A/B/C. Optimize that.

2010-08-15T02:54:30+00:00

xdroop: @mWare select D from table where A=foo and B=foo and C=foo; (where A,B,C,D are all integers, and there's an index on A/B/C. Optimize that.

xdroop: is profiling his bad perl script. Verdict: most of the time I'm waiting around for Postgresql to do what I want. Foo.

2010-08-15T02:38:36+00:00

xdroop: is profiling his bad perl script. Verdict: most of the time I'm waiting around for Postgresql to do what I want. Foo.

xdroop: thinks someone's tripped his Twitter #ThatsNotFunny threshold.

2010-08-14T23:01:16+00:00

xdroop: thinks someone's tripped his Twitter #ThatsNotFunny threshold.

6K on ServerFault

2010-08-14T22:48:52+00:00

Been a while, but broke 6K on Server Fault yesterday.

Seems to me like the number of questions I can answer is steadily dropping, as so much of the low-hanging-fruit turns out to be duplicates of previous answers. The questions that remain are very incident-specific, and most of then deal with details I don't know about.

But still, 6K is still nothing to sneer at. As of today, I'm ranked #42 on the site.

(Previously.)

xdroop: @_tech_stuff_ Ubuntu is fine as a desktop, in the same way XP is a fine desktop for non-users. Most of the sharp edges filed off.

2010-08-13T03:15:00+00:00

xdroop: @_tech_stuff_ Ubuntu is fine as a desktop, in the same way XP is a fine desktop for non-users. Most of the sharp edges filed off.

xdroop: wonders if he's an old fart because "ubuntu server" sounds like an oxymoron.

2010-08-13T02:12:15+00:00

xdroop: wonders if he's an old fart because "ubuntu server" sounds like an oxymoron.

Planet Xdroop

xed

VIDEO: Kitteh Falls in Hamper

xdroop: I don't feel tardy. #VanHalen

xdroop: Every time. Nice white shirt and I spill something on it.

xdroop: Overtaking, emphasis on the "over": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFgGcfgjZ0&feature=player_embedded

xdroop: SO, BASICALLY, IT'S LIKE A CONTENT DISTRIBUTION NETWORK FOR PARKING TICKETS! http://itsthisforthat.com/

Force India Raw Speed

xdroop: Good news from the school. Daring to hope again.

xdroop: @snobiwan I envy you that.

xdroop: @snobiwan Permanent? Yes. Positive?... depends on which side of the desk you are sitting on.

xdroop: "... fanboys with little insight to give..." &lt;sigh&gt;

Homebrew Cray-1A | ChrisFenton.com

xdroop: Oooh. A "Nike" power outage.

Penn and Teller take on vaccines

xdroop: Turns out I don't have carrier pigeon service. Sorry.

xdroop: Have I mentioned that RIM changed all the connectors into the new Blackberry so that NONE of six cables I already own fit any more? Nice.

xdroop: Phone battery died. Send urgent messages via carrier pigeon for the next two hours.

xdroop: @mWare only for very low values of "interesting".

xdroop: @mWare you get kicked out of the most interesting places.

I Like BOB-TV

xdroop: @snobiwan me, because I still have a 1998 Mazda 626 LX V6 for sale.

xdroop: "In my experience, when programmers and system administrators fight, it's because they're bored." http://tinyurl.com/39gnasd

xdroop: Welcome to hell. Here's your secured-beyond-useless KDE login session.

xdroop: Oh, goody, time to update Windows Defender. Now my day is truly complete.

xdroop: Alex's first split chin. One stitch. Three adults and one DQ required to get it in to him.

xdroop: Nothing quite says "day off" like rocket science at the grocery store. Apparently.

HSRP Tutorial | AlwaysTheNetwork

Network Dictionary - Bandwidth Fairy | My Etherealmind

Yum Repository | Utter Ramblings

10 boot time parameters you should know about the Linux kernel « techblog

xdroop: @mWare how about now?

xdroop: The closer the #Green party gets to being electable, the lower the likelihood I'll vote for them. #Politics

xdroop: @_tech_stuff_ Yeah, you gotta watch those bears.

xdroop: Fish. Fish is happening. (Are happening?) Fish fish fish fish fish. Oh and yes the cat box needs cleaning. Sorry you asked?

xdroop: http://twitpic.com/2gvefz - Going to the park

The Eight Fallacies of Distributed Computing

Is 10 years of RHEL support still sufficient ?

What different sorting algorithms sound like

We're number 7!

xdroop: Hey wild, Twitter has https support.

xdroop: Tthe definition of a successful meeting is that when the meeting is done, it need never occur again.

xdroop: is making gravel by banging rocks together.

xdroop: somehow got a #ratepoint subscription through #eNom. Told them twice I don't want it but they keep billing. #makeitstop

xdroop: Water back on, if slow. But slow I can deal with.

xdroop: Twitter confirms, Morgans Grant has no water.

xdroop: 311 is busy. It isn't just me. I have three flushes left -- better make 'em count.

xdroop: Totally lost water pressure. Morgans Grant Kanata Ottawa. Just me? It was working two hours ago.

The art of physical, outer perimeter security | IT Security | TechRepublic.com

Mendez On Spezza

HOWTO - Delegate a Subdomain (a.k.a. subzone)

Complicated Mechanisms Explained in simple animations

Radial Engines

Steam engine Principle

Sewing Machine

Maltese Cross Mechanism

Manual Transmission Mechanism

Constant Velocity Joint

Torpedo-Boat destroyer System

Rotary Engine

xdroop: is barf^Wpaper bag testing.

Nightmare Scenario

How big is your red zone?

xdroop: @mWare select D from table where A=foo and B=foo and C=foo; (where A,B,C,D are all integers, and there's an index on A/B/C. Optimize that.

xdroop: is profiling his bad perl script. Verdict: most of the time I'm waiting around for Postgresql to do what I want. Foo.

xdroop: thinks someone's tripped his Twitter #ThatsNotFunny threshold.

6K on ServerFault

xdroop: @_tech_stuff_ Ubuntu is fine as a desktop, in the same way XP is a fine desktop for non-users. Most of the sharp edges filed off.

xdroop: wonders if he's an old fart because "ubuntu server" sounds like an oxymoron.

xdroop: "... fanboys with little insight to give..." <sigh>