iNode: Nota Bene

Quill, my blog/wiki text markup language project, has just reached it's first milestone - Initial Public Release!

Quill has been used to drive this blog since it came back to life at the beginning of this month, and the test cases of real data / real usage have been great for finding the edge cases and refining the language itself.

The IPR gives you a Ruby implementation that expects to filter STDIN, a format plugin for Nanoblogger which is being used to generate this blog, and a Trac plugin which is used in the project wiki/bug tracker.

Feel free to download and play with/use this code, bug reports are welcome on the Trac wiki as is feedback direct to my email address, jim(@)inode.co.nz

You want Google Mail IMAP? You have to speak English(US). Change your settings (from English(UK) for me) and the option will appear. Change back … and it'll vanish. I haven't tried to see if the vanishing settings also cuts off your usage of IMAP …

Thanks to Ben Kepes for being the first blogger I saw that mentioned this enabling trick.

128 is the seventh power of 2. According to heads more used to number theory than mine, it is also the largest number that cannot be expressed as the sum of a series of distinct squares.

You can combine the decimal digits of 128 with normal mathematical operators to give the result 128.

2 ⁸⁻¹ = 128

Numerology that is base-specific always seems wrong to me – it gets given a name, in this case 128 is a Friedman number. On the other hand, there's something slightly fun about the “nice zeroless pandigital Friedman number” 286435179

286435179 = -286 + 4 ^{(3*5 -1 7)} -9

128 is also the number of LinkedIn connections I had when I started this article :-)

I'm sure I thought NS$1/GB storage (on 3.5" disk) was good a couple of years ago.

Now I see that NZ$0.35/GB is the sweet spot, for sizes from 200GB to $300GB.

Especially for Friday afternoons …

Never put off till tomorrow something you can avoid doing all together

Apologies to … well, possibly Benjamin Franklin or Mark Twain but who can be sure?

Perhaps it was

Co muzes udelat dnes, neodkladej na zitrek.

I have a Dell PowerEdge 700 sitting here, currently not used. Ubuntu doesn't boot on it – halfway through boot it drops down to the initramfs shell. The cause is the presence of an Adaptec 39160 SCSI controller – remove that and the machine boots.

These cards should work, there are even vendor-provided drivers and source code. Yes, there may have been an IRQ conflict with the mobo USB controller – but changing that didn't help.

Life's too short to debug this sort of thing. Goodbye, Adaptec card. I'll use SATA disks instead, thanks. RAID can be an OS task for now … until I pick up an Intel or 3ware “real hardware” RAID controller some time.

Update: Once the controller is removed, normal installation can proceed on another disk. Then the newly-installed kernel has no problem whatsoever booting up with the controller in place! So whatever the real problem it, it's something to do with the installation kernel modules for Ubuntu 7.10 and 7.06, and Knoppix 5.1. Life is still too short for this.

Google can track me back to October 1990. Before that I was mostly on JANET, not the rest of the Internet. There are even things on there that I'd rather forget, but of course they're part of the memory of the net, now.

You don't want to read another “Ooh, I've upgraded by Ubuntu” story, do you? As Effusion's dissenter Jonathan Hunt said,

Ha, here comes the monoculture! ;-)

So, I have a working Ubuntu 7.04, and a Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 alternate ISO file on a USB key … but no CD. Normally, popping an update CD in will trigger the Upgrade Manager, but not with an ISO.

But all is not lost. On the top of the ISO filesystem is a handy script, cdromupgrade. All we have to do is mount the ISO on a loopback filesystem and run the script (with an absolute filename, apparently).

# ls /media/USBKEY
ubuntu-7.10-alternate-i386.iso
# mkdir /tmp/u710
# mount -t iso9660 -o loop /media/USBKEY/ubuntu-7.10-alternate-i386.iso /tmp/u710
# /tmp/u710/cdromupgrade

Up pops the Upgrade Manager, ready to rock and roll!

Now, will it work … ?

I'm “lucky” enough to get to spend almost two hours a day on the bus, so I get to listen to a lot of podcasts. If I like a new podcast, I'll go to the archives and start at Episode 1. Here's the list …

LugRadio ≅ > 1 hour

LugRadio is a fortnightly British radio show that takes a relaxed, humorous look at Linux and open source. Note: the language on the show may offend some.

The LugRadio crew are enthuiastic and sometimes know what they're talking about. It can take a while to get into the flow of their in-jokes, and a working knowledge of English slang will help. One of the few podcasts in this world that will cause involuntary outbreaks of laughter from the listner.

Skepticality ≅ 1 hour

People will believe anything. Why is that? Our podcast is here to bring you relevant, under reported current events, as well as in-depth discussions from a scientific, critical, skeptical, and humorous point of view. In our travels we will tackle the beasts of pseudo science; the paranormal, supernatural, ufo / alien encounters, misunderstood history, astronomy, space, and overwrought legends - urban or otherwise. Welcome to Skepticality, truth in podcasting.

One of the earliest and most successful “popular critical thinking” podcasts, Derek and Swoopy bring out the best in those old cynical skeptics …

[Astronomy Cast||http://astronomycast.com] ≅ 30 minutes

Astronomy Cast takes a fact based journey through the cosmos as it offers listeners weekly discussions on astronomical topics ranging from planets to cosmology. Hosted by Fraser Cain (Universe Today) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (SIUE), this show brings the questions of an avid astronomy lover direct to an astronomer. Together Fraser and Pamela explore what is known and being discovered about the universe around us.

An outgrowth from the early Slacker Astronomy podcast, Fraser and Pamela take their subject field in a measured topic-by-topic way, with full transcripts available. Great for classroom use, and even if you think you know the subject, you'll still learn new things and great ways to explain them.

[Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena||http://skeptoid.com] ≅ 5−10 minutes

Skeptoid is a podcast dedicated to furthering knowledge by blasting away the widespread pseudosciences that infect popular culture. Each weekly episode focuses on a single phenomenon – paranormal, spiritual, alternative, or just plain stupid – that you've heard of, and that you probably believe in. Skeptoid attempts to expose the folly of belief in such phenomena, and more importantly, explains the factual scientific reality. From the sublime to the startling, no topic is sacred, politically incorrect though that may be. 11,000+ weekly listeners.

Brian addresses tightly-defined topics – some foundational skeptical thinking techniques, and some analyses of a “real world” situation, and provides a neutral but inherently scientific viewpoint. Just because “science” can't explain something doesn't mean it's bunkum – but if the proponents can't describe it scientifically, you should be skeptical.

The Silver Bullet Security Podcast ≅ 20 minutes

In-depth conversations with leading security gurus, hosted by Gary McGraw, sponsored by IEEE Security & Privacy magazine.

Gary has assembled an excellent series of interviewees from the security world – Eugene Spafford, Peter Neumann, Bruce Schneier and Marcus Ranum number amongst my favourites – and in a friendly, chatty show gets them talking about their past and current security work.

Dr Karl on triple j ≅ 45 minutes

These MP3s are an edited package of Dr Karl's magical hour, Live on Mel in the Morning. It's roughly an hour devoted to the collective exploration of some of the great mysteries of life, such as “why does the water in the shower slow down just when it gets hot?”.

In this regular radio program, people phone up the station and ask their questions of popular all-rounder, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki. Bonus points go to people who have tried an experiment to answer their own questions first!

Dr Karl's Great Moments In Science ≅ 5 minutes

Karl has been creating Great Moments in Science� for many years now. They celebrate all sides of science; from sublime moments of deep thought to the most arcane and bizarre research imaginable. The universe is a strange and wonderful place and, in his Great Moments, Karl has scaled the highest peaks as well as turned over the pebbles to see what's underneath.

Short bite-size hits on a very wide range of facts and myth-busting.

The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe ≅ 1 hour

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe is a weekly Podcast talkshow produced by the New England Skeptical Society (NESS) in association with the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) : discussing the latest news and topics from the world of the paranormal, fringe science, and controversial claims from a scientific point of view.

Crypto-Gram Security Podcast ≅ 45 minutes → 1 hour

Crypto-Gram is a free monthly e-mail newsletter from security expert Bruce Schneier. Each issue is filled with interesting commentary, pointed critique, and serious debate about security. As head curmudgeon at the table, Schneier explains, debunks, and draws lessons from security stories that make the news. After nine years of publication and with 125,000 readers, Crypto-Gram is the most popular and influential publication on security technology.

Bruce Schneier's views and summaries of news in the wider Security world are insightful and thoughtful. He writes a lot of material – and lacks the time to read it out for us! Instead, Dan Henage reads the newsletters, and does a great job of transforming written text into spoken language.

CBC Radio: Quirks & Quarks ≅ 1 hour

Join host Bob McDonald each week to find out the latest in science, technology, medicine and the environment. We cover every aspect of science, from the quirks of the expanding universe to the quarks within a single atom … and everything in between.

Still getting used to this show, but it features a good range of working scientists and science communicators, keeping us updated on interesting, topical, and unusual subjects.

Quick Hitts ≅ 15 minutes

The far left is seldom right. The far right is usually wrong. But if you stand in the middle of the road you'll be run down by mediocrity. How can you make sense of it all? By adding Quick Hitts podcasts to your intellectual arsenal. Quick Hitts are brief, pithy, and the only podcasts that get you Smartenized�. Enjoy a semi-humorous look at news, culture, science, politics, and the world around us from a somewhat disgusted, slightly amused point of view, and end up just a bit smarter than you were before.

There's nothing wrong with an opinion, as long as the holder also has a sense of humour. Dave Hitt has a great radio voice, great sense of delivery, and an innate fairness that means he has to think about an issue before criticising it. You still won't agree with him more than half the time, but you'll always enjoy listening to him!

BCS OddIT ≅ 30 minutes

oddIT, the BCS podcast for the interesting, amusing and downright weird in IT

A friendly but often disappointing round-table presentation of current strange IT-related news items. Variable audio levels make it difficult to hear sometimes (especially in a noisy environment), and there's probably not enough in-depth thinking about the articles presented.

Geologic Podcast

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, composer and heliocentrist George Hrab has written and produced 5 independent CDs; performed for President Clinton; shared the stage with Elton John, Bernie Worrell, (and many others); and has traveled across the country both as a drummer for the nationally-recognized Philadelphia Funk Authority and as defacto President for Life of The Geologic Orchestra. Humbly following in the footsteps of such icons as Frank Zappa, Mark Twain, Carl Sagan, Will Rogers and yes even Penn & Teller, he has made it a personal quest to improve the cognitive thinking skills of each and every American by reaching them through their funny bones and dance shoes.

I love the music, I'm sure I'll love the podcast … I've been missing the zaniness of Penn Gilette's radio show since that went off the air, and the chances are George Hrab will be able to fill those large shoes :-)

I'm writing a lot of regular expressions at the moment, as part of the Quill input language parser in Ruby, and every now and then I get visual overload trying to debug them!

So I hunted for some visualisation tools – and discovered the excellent reAnimator from Oliver Steele.

This excellent tool deconstructs your regexp into two graphs – one for the deterministic solution, and one for the non-deterministic one. You then get to input the match text, and the graphs animate character-by-character …

a*b|b*a with input of ‘a’

I'm reading Joanna Bourke's book Fear – A Cultural History at the moment, and in the Social Hysteria chapter we've just moved from the story of Fr. Knox's 1926 panic-inducing radio play Broadcasting from the Barricades to the better known War of the Worlds 1938 event

A comment in the text is establishing the importance and authority of radio at that time, and says :-

Twenty-seven and a half million American families (out of a total of thirty-two million) possessed radios – a higher proportion of families enjoyed the use of a radio than owned a telephone or car, or could boast of residing in a home with plumbing or electricity

It took me a couple of minutes to parse that statement – more people had a radio than had electricity. Battery technology probably wasn't too good in 1938 … so how were their radios powered?

Well, I eventually remembered crystal set radios ! These will happily receive a radio signal with no external power source, although they may be a little quiet. Amplification without electricity was also available, through ingenious use of a kerosene flame in a ceramic cone.

So, with these radios being in popular common use at the time, the concept of people without household electricity or reasonable battery technology being able to still use a radio makes sense, and a seemingly-nonsensical statement becomes completely resonable …

But without a knowledge of historical technology, I might have assumed that the quoted statement was mis-stated, or just plain wrong …

Somebody has been a little bit subversive with the lobby artwork in Unisys House this week …

(large)

Given one blank corporate laptop (XP, with full Office including Visio and Project), what software would I install, and why?

It's all Free Software | Open Source unless otherwise noted.

• Cygwin
• • This gives me as full a Linux-like environment as possible, that lives in the same filesystem as Windows, so I can work on Windows-stored data with proper tools ..
  • Subcategory - what do I install in the Cygwin environment?
  • • openssh, openssl, stunnel, rsync, unison, keychain
    • expect, perl, python, ruby, tcl/tk
    • zip, unzip, bzip2, expat / OpenSP, vim, ImageMagick, netpbm
    • rxvt, figlet, lynx, links, X

• Firefox
• • Because you need a web browser, of course
  • Subcategory - what plugins do I install on Firefox?
  • • Google Browser Sync
    • • Synchronise bookmarks & passwords between all your Firefox instances, via Google. Yes you can encrypt the data. No you shouldn't believe that'll keep them out. Don't store customer passwords in here!
    • Gmail Notifier
    • • Keep an unobtrusive eye on your incoming mail.
    • Mouse Gestures
    • • Reproduce Opera's finest features!
    • Add Bookmark Here 2
    • • Makes bookmarking easier to get organised, and to use.
    • Firebug
    • • Absolutely magnificent debug environment for pages and requests.
    • Better Gmail
    • • Not totally convinced you need the whole load, but the Google Reader integration and the “Mark Read” button are a huge improvement over stock Gmail.

• FinePrint - neither Free nor free
• • n-up print job compositor - print anything to the FinePrint printer, and select 1,2,4,8-up printing, delete individual unwanted pages, etc. Very useful!
• KeePass
• • Single-user cross-platform encrypted password database.
• FreeMind
• • Mind-mapping software with just the right amount of features. Easy to drive from keyboard or mouse.
• Wireshark - formerly “Ethereal”
• • Network traffic capture and analyser. Identifies network problems fast.
• Network Stumbler - No source code?
• • Allows scanning of the wireless networks in range. Slightly better than the Wifi signal detector Tshirt
• BZFlag
• • The recreational drug - BattleZone Capture the Flag! “MMFPS”
  • But probably not played while on work time, or the work network …
• The Gimp
• • Every now and then you need to edit or create graphics :-)
• Stellarium
• • You need to know what's behind those clouds at night!

• Step 1 - purchase a Wifi signal detector Tshirt from ThinkGeek
• Step 2 - wander arounds the streets, waiting to see if you light up near public wifi …
• Step 3 - profit!

I think I'll have to wait for the model that uses different colours for secured, unsecured, and unsecured Internet routable networks …

I've finally upgraded my Nanoblogger to version 3.3, mostly because I've decided to change markup again, this time to my own implementation called Quill.

I've refactored all the old entries and articles to the new format (which was a very valuable exercise in real-world content for the markup engine's first Real World experiences, leading to quite a few bugfixes and a few changes to the syntax specification!)

One important thing to remember is that nb -u all does not successfully update all the articles, as you'd expect from it's description. NB maintains a cache of formatted output, and although I remember using touch to change timestamps when I change the formatting engine's reactions, these cache files persisted into the final output.

The high-impact change is to fully delete the contents of archive cache and parts before updating. Perhaps I could get away with just cache …