I like to see the time.

I've been bemoaning the lack of a good desktop clock for OS X ever since I switched. it's a little thing, but I like to be able to see the time and date both at the same time, without having to muckity muck around with the mouse.

I've checked out a few options, but I didn't find anything that suited my fancy. that is, until today, when I found out that OS X comes with it's OWN little desktop clock!

found at Al Fasoldt's Technofile, this article explains that buried in the System Directory is a "Window Clock". this is the same windowed clock that can be activated through the "Date & Time" system preference window, except that it doesn't disable the taskbar clock, which is ALSO handy to have about.

now, I can have this happy little clock display on my second monitor, while I bounce around on the screen, or on my PC. it's quite wonderful.

(yeah, I know, little things make me happy).

Don't forget to *enjoy the sauce*.

one of the greatest games of all time, Star Control 2, has been released to the public as The Ur-Quan Masters.

I used to play this game in my first year of University, shortly after it came out, in my friend's room across the hall. on many an afternoon, the techno-driven music could be heard blasting out of his rez room, accompanied by explosions and curses as I found myself blown to bits again (usually by another person, but occasionally by the computer if I played by myself).

this game had it all; an epic storyline, action, adventure, intrigue, humour, and (at the time), wicked graphics. it looks dated now, but the game play is still top-notch, and the sound is no worse than a lot of games nowadays.

and speaking of sound, The Precursors Team have slowly been releasing modern remixes of the original music and combat ditties. The Precursors Team consists of members of the original music composers, and the group "Medieval Future." the music is very atmospheric, and is easy to listen to on its own, or as part of the game. I've downloaded the first three expansion packs, and am eagerly awaiting the fouth.

finally, a wiki titled The Ultronomicon has been set up that will eventually contain all the information on the Star Control Universe that one would want or need to know. I'm anxious to see how this works out. I'd like to contribute, but so far, I've only managed to ally with the Orz, and get to the Spathi homeworld, so I'm lacking a little bit of knowledge on the subject.

Random Word Generation

when playing a System Administrator, I often a need for tools to help me generate passwords. these passwords need to be secure, but they also need to be relatively easy to remember. at one point, I had written a script that generator quasi-random passwords. this created nice, secure passwords, based on some rules that required it to alternate hands, and include vowels, consonents and punctuation in certain orders.

my co-workers hated it. I was incessantly mocked for my incoherent passwords. they didn't like that there was no mnemonic to help them remember the words. bastards.

this led me to the next logical step: random word generation.

I did some googling, and came up with a couple of places that generated random words from a database:

• The Sanguma Creative Thinking Guide Random Word Generator
• Wong Yi Wen's Random Word Generator

both of these generated fine, strong words. however, this wasn't quite what I was looking for. so, I kept looking, and came up with Sushi's Random Word Generator. this program accepts a word or sentance as input, and munges it, returning a completely different, non-real word. the problem here, though, was that the words didn't really look or sound like real words. so, again, not quite what I was looking for.

next, I found a couple of true random word generators. The first, the Fourteen Minutes Random Word Generator, generates a short list of completely random words with no input, or generate words with based on the starting letters that you input.

the second, Sean Puckett's Random Word Generator, creates random words from the paragraphs that you enter. the more seed words you enter, the more new words that are created. this has the advantage of being able to create words that are based on a certain subject matter. for instance, if the generator is fed a list of girl's names from the 1800s, a list of new and unique girl's names is generated. imagine the fun generated from a list of naughty words!

Making the best of a bad thing.

Spamusement! takes the subject lines of real spam email messages, and turns them into cartoons. the page says that they're poorly drawn, but honestly, they are much better than what I could do.

Can we boot it? Yes we can!

over the past couple of days, I've been working on an older laptop that's been having some unpleasant troubles with Windows 98.. while reading through some options that I have to fix it, I found myself in need of a Windows 98 boot disk. the usual means of creating one of these beasts is to use Windows 98 itself to create it. unfortunately, since this machine wouldn't boot, and I didn't have a Windows 98 machine handy (and haven't for several years), I needed to find some other means of creating a boot disk.

enter Google. with a little bit of searching, I can across a couple of sites that offer both standard and custom Windows bootdisk solutions.

Bootdisk.com

this site hosts several types of bootdisks, as well as links to various updates and drivers. it's useful, but difficult to navigate. a direct link to their bootdisk downloads is helpful to have.

FreePCTech.com

this site also hosts boot disks for MS operating systems, from DOS 6 through XP SP1. it also has several special purpose boot disks.

one should note that while these sites both say that their boot disks are virus free, one should always take care when using disks from an unverified source. it's better to be safe than sorry, yes?

CSS fun (updated)

here's some links to some great Cascading Style Sheet resources... more than enough to keep you busy for a few days.

The css-discuss Wiki

The Wiki associated with the css-discuss mailing list. very helpful/useful.

CSS Zen Garden

this site demonstrates the power of CSS. all of the 'skins' have been created using CSS 1.

Mezzoblue

a regularly published blog that is a companion to CSS Zen Garden

Holy CSS Zeldman!

this has to be one of the largest and best organized collections of CSS Resource links out there.

A List Apart

a weekly webmag that provides articles on webdesign and CSS.

W3 CSS Validator

the W3 CSS Validator. make sure that everything is good in your CSS.

W3 Markup Validator

Can't have valid CSS without valid markup...

How to make Windows display thumbnails again.

I just rebuilt my computer at home. I like to do this every once in a while, to clear out the cruft that accumulates in the operating system. this time, I rebuilt with Win2K, and reinstalled all the tools that my wife likes: mozilla, real player, blah blah blah... and MS Office 2000. everything seemed fine, until she went to look at the pictures of our munchkins, and found that they wouldn't display as thumbnails.

at first, I thought that it was because I use Irfanview, since only the Irfanview icon showed. but, a short websearch later turned up this little gem from Windows Network Magazine:

Ensure Graphics Files Display Previews and Thumbnails Correctly .

it turns out that when I installed Office 2K, I also installed Photo Editor, then later uninstalled it so that it didn't accidently get used instead of Irfanview. when I did that, I wrecked the thumbnail associations.

it was a (relatively) simple fix, that only required that I add the ShellEx key back to the file extension, which associates MS Paint with them. I went through the registry editor to add it again, but here are the registry files that I created in case someone else needs to do it.

Reassociate .gif files with paint for thumbnails:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.gif\ShellEx]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.gif\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{7376D660-C583-11d0-A3A5-00C04FD706EC}"


Reassociate .jpg files with paint for thumbnails:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\ShellEx]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{7376D660-C583-11d0-A3A5-00C04FD706EC}"


this worked like a charm. I guess that the value of the key actually needs to be {7376D660-C583-11d0-A3A5-00C04FD706EC} or else it won't work... I'm guessing that this is a hex representation of MS Paint, or something like that.

as well, this didn't replace the file associations with Irfanview, so they still opened up properly.

Where the hell's the damn S-K-A-T-E letters?

well, I don't know if it has all the locations, but at least now I can figure out how to grind the molten bucket.

PlanetTonyHawk - A Member of the GameSpy Network

Harold and Kumar Go To Whitecastle

okay, I'm not sure if Harold and Kumar Go To Whitecastle is just viral marketing for Whitecastle, or this summer's sleeper hit comedy. but if it's real, I do think that I want to go see it. I nearly popped a blood vessel trying not to laugh out loud so I don't wake my kids.

but hey, don't take it from me. go watch the trailer for yourself. if you think I'm smoking crack, and this just isn't funny, feel free to come back and tell me!

of course, I'll just tell you that you're wrong...

(poop, I just realized that regardless of whether or not this is real, I've just participated in a marketting campaign. oh well. it's still funny).

Also, Gentoooooooo

since I'm on the subject of things that I've been fiddling with at work, I managed to get Gentoo serving out the web on my little pIII-450. (see 'My Current Homepage' on the sidebar). I ran into a couple of problems:

1. mod_auth_kerb didn't compile. there was a simple bug that had a string split across lines, that it didn't like, but getting it fixed and updated was a problem - I'd fix the bug, then attempt to --resume my emerge, but it would re-extract the source over my changes. it took a little searching, but I managed to find a few other people with the same problem, over on the Gentoo forums. seems that I needed to fix the source bug, then rebuilt the .tar.gz file, and generate a new MD5 for it, then put it into the portage tree. so, I think that I've found my first annoying thing about Gentoo.

2. my PHP4 and KERB_AUTH modules weren't being read. this was a bit of a confusing fix... they needed to be added to the /etc/conf.d/apache2 file, a la:

   APACHE2_OPTS="-D SSL -D PHP4 -D KERB_AUTH"

   but at first, the changes didn't seem to get picked up by apache2ctl when I restarted. I'm not sure what happened, but this afternoon when I tried it, they were picked up, and I was able to properly access things.

3. Oh, the mod_proxy stuff also appeared to be enabled by default. (¿¿¿) I didn't want to have my box turned into a spam server, thank you very much, so I turned that off before I even turned apache on.

so, all in all, I'm mostly impressed with Gentoo. the product has made installation of packages simple, and everything is tuned to my box. I'm contemplating using this for the kiosks that I need to make one of these days... and maybe the next incarnation of the department webserver, if I get adventurous.

Quicktime Streaming Server

I spent part of today and yesterday reaquainting myself with the ins and outs of Apple's Quicktime Streaming Server. it's changed a bit since the last time we used it, and is now administered through the Server Admin tool, which is a good thing.

what we're trying to do is use the streaming server to deliver the video content of the online course that the department is creating. I'm not sure that it will be able to, however, since the movies were created in flash, and exported to Quicktime, and don't seem to be of proper streaming format. I suspect that this is partially due to the interactivity of them. I want to see if they just need to be hinted, or if they really can't be used. (I'm leaning towards the latter).

the tool that I'm really interested in trying is the QTSS Publisher. from the looks of the docs, you can use this to create playlists of media, which can be made to look like a live broadcast. this might be useful if we wanted to develop an online class that had its content broadcast only during certain parts of the day, or something like that. whether this would actually be useful or not is to be seen, but it's worth investigating.

Geekdump

Here's a further smattering of geeky links for ya.

• How to count to 31 on one hand
• Murphy's Law, and Other Reasons Things Go Wrong
• Rockwood: A Comic Strip Odyssey
• Sysadmin's Random Excuse Generator

that's enough.

Ramen

That geek staple:

Ramen

It Leeeeeeves!

I finally got the new Gentoo installation up and running. my latest snag was a problem with the kernel; grub would find the root and boot partitions, but as soon as it tried to boot, things stopped, and the caps and scroll lock LEDs would start flashing.

now, according to my man Doug (hey Doug!), this meant a kernel panic. the only problem was, it was supposed to give me some indication of what PART of the kernel caused the panic, but I got nothing. bupkiss. diddley-squat.

some obscure web searches later, I had only a guess: the power management bits of the kernel were causing the panic. I rebooted with the CD, recompiled without the power management add-ins, and rebooted... and BAM, it boots up!

now, to see if I can't get my box web serving again.

Gentoo + Security

a thought I had this morning while waiting for my system logger to compile:

you really have to put a lot of trust in Gentoo and their Portage package system. since you can compile everything, you have to trust that noone has inserted unpleasant code in the config script, or anything like that.

of course, being that it's Free Software, there's no guarantee about anything. I would expect, though, that they audit their packages regularly.

this is all obvious to anyone who might be installing Gentoo, I'm sure. it just occurred to me, is all.

Gentoo, sumore...

snurf. I ended up restarting my Gentoo installation today. I went to do some configuration, and realized that I didn't remember anything about what I'd done.

So, I've begun again, and this time, I'm writing down all of the information I enter or require, in case I need it later (which I will).

You'd think that I'd learn.

But hey, the install is still better documented and easier than anything else that I've tried, so far!

Hockey sucks.

for those of you not familiar with this particular form of (barely) organized gang warfare, here's MAD's Ice Hockey Primer. from the March 1969 issue, it still pretty much stands today. too bad it didn't have the pictures with it, as I'm sure it would make it that much better.

(I'm sure my warfare hockey-loving friends would just love this one, especially at this time of the year).

For all your post-apocalyptic zombie horror needs

check out Day by Day Armageddon. this is the online journal of a U.S. military man who is trying to survive in a zombie infected alternate world. well written, interesting, with excellent buildup throughout the month to intriguing peaks.

PG-13 at the least, but I don't think that I'd let my kids read it until they were a little older than that.

Gentoo Linux

I've heard quite a bit about Gentoo Linux lately, so I thought that I'd give it a try on my box at work. I decided to get the "full" Gentoo experience and compile everything, and take advantage of custom compiled binaries and whatnot.

I started this on Tuesday. I'm still at the stage 2 step of the installation, where it compiles up the system. so, I don't know if I'm really qualified to review what I've seen so far, but here goes anyhow.

based on the documentation, it seems as if the developers had read the Linux From Scratch documentation, and said "Hey, this is neat. But not everyone has the time to do EVERYTHING from scratch, so why don't we make up a new system that does some of it for them, while documenting the steps that one goes through?" I'm not very far along in the setup (just about to do the kernel compile), but I already feel like I have a better knowledge of a linux system than before. not alot, but some. plus, I've used some utilities that I hadn't before.

the documentation is also amongst the best of any open-source project I've seen. it puts crap like what the Apache Cocoon Project puts out to shame (a subject for another rant / post). It's well organized, easy to read, and easy to find information that you need or are interested in. It contains a plethora of information on sub-projects, also well organized, and projects that are outside the Gentoo developement circle, but are still relevant to the Gentoo project itself.

I'm excited to see how this turns out. hopefully, it will lead to a more easily maintainable machine. or at least, something that I enjoy using, rather than beating my head against.

Tontie

This little flash game is an amusing distraction. I've heard it called whack-a-mole, goopy-style.

Just try not to get addicted.

The Incredibles

there's a new trailer for The Incredibles. go see it. now. really.

I'm very excited. there are quite a few people that work at Pixar that have passed through my alma mater. if only that gave me some sort of insight into the movies they produce, alas, they're as tight lipped as you'd expect.

anyhow, I can't imagine that this will be anything but awesome.

new blogger...

I like the new blogger look and feel.

it was a bit of a surprise when I logged in this evening, but things work very nicely. the "Edit Posts" area works as I expect it to now, meaning that I can see my draft posts when I view everything, and it's obvious which posts are such. plus, the colours are nice, too.

the only thing that I really have to complain about is that I don't like the way it converts line breaks. it makes everything look all crappy. so, I turned them off and started doing manual line breaks.

only problem was, I had to go back and fix all my old posts. luckily I only had a handful... :)

RSS Linkity Links

I thought I'd drop in the links that I found on RSS 2.0:

• RSS 2.0 Specification
• Extending RSS 2.0 with Namespaces
• Content Feeds with RSS 2.0 (IBM)
• Dave Winer's RSS 2.0 Political F.A.Q.

I've been thinking about how to use RSS to shuffle around the data, and I think that it's going to this: on script that publishes the XML to the web, and a separate script that doesn't output anything, but returns useful values. the publish script will pull from the functions script, and so will anything else that wants the data. I mentioned this last night when I posted, but it definately seems like this is the way to go, so I thought that I'd mention it again.

I've worked up a test RSS feed that validates, that I'm going to use as a template. The neat thing that I'm doing with it, I think, is using the <guid> field as a link back to the bookmark or group edit page, and the <link> field as the bookmark or group link proper. it seems to fall into what the spec meant to have the guid field used for, I think. this should work just fine with groups or bookmarks.

Fun with RSS

I've been reading up on RSS, specifically the 2.0 spec. I think that I want to use it to pass data around my new homepage. see, I'm building it from scratch, and have several modules that I want to be able to access easily from different parts of the page... like the bookmarks or news module from within the module, or from the front page. plus, then it would be easy to access various bits from outside of my homepage... for example, I could subscribe to my list of left-handed chainsaw sites, and view it in an aggregator along with my news from slashdot, or whatever. one stop surfing, really.

of course, I don't want to have my homepage widgets having to communicate over port 80, since that would impact my bandwidth. so, I'll need to have some functions in the modules that I can export to other php scripts, in order to nicely communicate without having to go off of the webserver. makes sense, I think.

(Yah know, you'd think that if you were trying to see 'everything' in the manage posts area, you'd be able to see ALL of your posts, including the drafts. not terribly user friendly at all).