There's more then one way to skin a cat baby or in the words of John McClane: yippee-ki-yay, mother fucker.
If I'm going to be stuck waiting until AT&T gets off their lazy butts and sorts the last of it, so that we can get our land lines hooked back up rather then routing everything through the cable modem, until I'll be able to get all the equipment moved to their final operational positions...
I'm going to access my files !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The servers good to go, ready to rock and roll, except for one problem! OpenBSDs support for WPA is gonna take -CURRENT and using my 3Com Ethernet XL card means the box needs to be near the router, which it can't right now...
So I had an idea, hook up my digital camera with the extra 2GB SD Card for storage and use the USB cable to mount her on the server. Then jet it all over to my laptop on the camera right?
I packed up ~/code, ~/Documents, and a few .dot files for stuff I use a lot into a couple of archives. The only problem? Trying to mv the archives to the camera on sd0i caused the machine to lock up! So that idea was toast, total waste of time spent fscking my drives.
Plan B.
Working off the advice from Daemon Forum regulars I managed to transfer my NIC over to it's new home, found my last power cable and plugged the system in on the deck, right next to the router.
Hooked her up and walked off for a drink, booted Dixie and sure enough I was able to ping her, ssh in to make sure she was fully on the LAN. Then I mounted my home directory and set about copying my files over to a 'makeshift' home directory in /usr/Projects/Terry,
As long as I have a brain 'tween my ears, I ain't gonna be kept from my objectives so easy. Now if I could just do something about the lack of sleep :\
Monday, July 14, 2008
Return of the files
There's more then one way to skin a cat baby.
If I'm going to be stuck waiting until AT&T gets off their lazy butts and sorts the last of it, so that we can get our land lines hooked back up rather then routing everything through the cable modem, until I'll be able to get all the equipment moved to their final operational positions...
I'm going to access my files !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The servers good to go, ready to rock and roll, except for one problem! OpenBSDs support for WPA is gonna take -CURRENT and using my 3Com Ethernet XL card means the box needs to be near the router, which it can't right now...
So I had an idea, hook up my digital camera with the extra 2GB SD Card for storage and use the USB cable to mount her on the server. Then jet it all over to my laptop on the camera right?
I packed up ~/code, ~/Documents, and a few .dot files for stuff I use a lot into a couple of archives. The only problem? Trying to mv the archives to the camera on sd0i caused the machine to lock up! So that idea was toast, total waste of time spent fscking my drives.
Plan B.
Working off the advice from Daemon Forum regulars I managed to transfer my NIC over to it's new home, found my last power cable and plugged the system in on the deck, right next to the router.
Hooked her up and walked off for a drink, booted Dixie and sure enough I was able to ping her, ssh in to make sure she was fully on the LAN. Then I mounted my home directory and set about copying my files over to a 'makeshift' home directory in /usr/Projects/Terry, which thanks to vipw is now my current roost for the time being..
As long as there is a brain 'tween my ears, I ain't gonna be stopped so easy from reaching my objective... And in the words of John McClane,
Yippee-ki-yay, Mother F***er
Now if I could just do some thing about the general lack of sleep... lol
If I'm going to be stuck waiting until AT&T gets off their lazy butts and sorts the last of it, so that we can get our land lines hooked back up rather then routing everything through the cable modem, until I'll be able to get all the equipment moved to their final operational positions...
I'm going to access my files !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The servers good to go, ready to rock and roll, except for one problem! OpenBSDs support for WPA is gonna take -CURRENT and using my 3Com Ethernet XL card means the box needs to be near the router, which it can't right now...
So I had an idea, hook up my digital camera with the extra 2GB SD Card for storage and use the USB cable to mount her on the server. Then jet it all over to my laptop on the camera right?
I packed up ~/code, ~/Documents, and a few .dot files for stuff I use a lot into a couple of archives. The only problem? Trying to mv the archives to the camera on sd0i caused the machine to lock up! So that idea was toast, total waste of time spent fscking my drives.
Plan B.
Working off the advice from Daemon Forum regulars I managed to transfer my NIC over to it's new home, found my last power cable and plugged the system in on the deck, right next to the router.
Hooked her up and walked off for a drink, booted Dixie and sure enough I was able to ping her, ssh in to make sure she was fully on the LAN. Then I mounted my home directory and set about copying my files over to a 'makeshift' home directory in /usr/Projects/Terry, which thanks to vipw is now my current roost for the time being..
As long as there is a brain 'tween my ears, I ain't gonna be stopped so easy from reaching my objective... And in the words of John McClane,
Yippee-ki-yay, Mother F***er
Now if I could just do some thing about the general lack of sleep... lol
Sunday, July 13, 2008
zzzZzzzZzzzzZzz
Ahh shit... been up all night again.
Well, at least this time I *might* get a decent amount of sleep :\
*passes out, head hits keyboard, and snores loudly*
Well, at least this time I *might* get a decent amount of sleep :\
*passes out, head hits keyboard, and snores loudly*
Charting a new course
Oh man, what a day!
I logged off for some shuteye around 0600 and awoke about 0836 or so when the people from our new ISP/Phone provider (we just bundled with the cable company). Managed to talk a little with the supervisor of the two about the setup involved, you could say the feeling that the other knew their ass from a hole in the ground was mutual >_>.
Because the cable boxes and the computer are on opposite sides of the rooms from the computers -- that's how the apartment was originally setup by a previous provider (Which was thrown out of the complex when the owners cut a deal with another company 0.o). So we had to go out and get some wireless cards, I paid for them as I agreed to if it would (and likely would) come to it.
So far, I've been cursed with shopping, practically stabbed in the eye, wondering why the bleeding heck our modems refuse to talk to my laptop or our router, and cannibalizing a pair of PCs, cut my finger, and I've been doing it all on ~2 hours sleep and a can of root beer !!!!!!
After drinking a bit of a root beer, we went out to get her shoppin' done and grab the cards, the plan was to be home in plenty of time to spare to get her and my (gaming) desktop hooked up so I could make it to Medics Live OP.
I was leaning over to put the water down when ma made an unexpected move of the arm and I nearly got the end of the car keys tip in my left eye. It must have only jabbed towards the point closer to the nose because I still have an eye left, it didn't hurt, and there is no sign of damage -- as much as I like MGS3, I really don't want to end up in an eye patch like Big Boss someday.
Thank GOD for protecting fools and star ships named Enterprise ;-)
While we were talking with someone at Best Buy, I asked the guy if they carried any RAM in the store and he sent me over to the Geek Squad (y). I got a 512mb dimm of PC2700 for Ma's computer along with three LInksys WMP54G PCI adapters and we hit Krogers.
I had a plan, I really did dang nab'it ! Check the manual for the ram speed to make sure the new chip was compatible (I bought PC2700 going by memory). Copy my Wifi data to each PC, setup the router, install each wifi card, and be *early* to the live op but it didn't work out that way.
First thing I did was plug in the router and try and set it up using DHCP instead of PPPoE but that didn't work. So I took the CAT-5e and hooked up the modem directly to my laptops on board Marvell Yukon and wondered, wtf is my modems address since it isn't offering DHCP services?
About 1930-1600Z I remembered the tenth commandment of C programmers*
I ripped apart my desktop setup and hooked SAL up on the floor near the living room modem and plugged her in directly. Booted windows, opened IE7 just to be sure for compatibility, and sure enough got a welcome message from the modem! Oh go fsck yourselfs!!! But it works.
Setup the modem over HTTP, got a really fucking fast connection compared to AT&Ts aDSL line. A quick speed test out of Atlanta showed like 3-5 times the data rates we were getting!
After that I shutdown and used my now cleared desk as a work table. Cracked open Ma's Dell 4550 for a little cleaning, install the WMP54G, upgraded the RAM from 512mb to 768mb and took the desktops original stick of PC 2100. I found that her PC was running a PC2100 and a PC2700 sprig of 256MB at 266Mhz.
Then I cracked open Vectra (an HP Vli8 500+more PC100 ram) and my brothers junked Dell 4500 PC on the "operating table". The Dell is missing it's CD-ROM drives and Ethernet NIC. There were two EIDE hard drives when I first salvaged it, a 40GB Western Digital and an 80GB Hitachi. The 80GB has been in Vectra for awhile now as a secondary disk but I left the smaller 40GB due to lack of space.
I tried the 40GB to see if there was a working install of Windows left on it before formatting it, the BIOS couldn't boot off it. So I pulled the CD-ROM drive out of Vectra and popped myself in the head. I only had one set of mounting brackets left for the Dell case -- which while compatible with the hard drives don't fit the CD-ROM drive !!!
So I did something that is probably stupid but effective. Hooked up the CD-ROM to the PSU and secondary EIDE port on the mother board, sandwiching the drive between the case and the lid before I booted her. Then popped myself in the head again when the CD tray ejected 'upside down', I wondered why the power dongle needed to plug into the wrong side.
Flipped it over, rebooted and loaded Knoppix LiveCD but still couldn't access that 40GB drive. I know Live CDs are slow (and that drives dated 1999 and 32X max reading speed) but it was actually a _lot_ faster then I thought it would be on 256MB of PC2100. Then I took out Vectra's root disk an 8.4GB Maxtor hosting my OpenBSD installation and switched mounting brackets.
She still wouldn't boot, so I tried my boot floppy from OpenBSD 4.1 (I didn't use a floppy for the 4.2/4.3 upgrades). I shutdown and switched the cable to the other mate on the EIDE line and rebooted, worked perfectly. Then I stuck in the 40GB drive and hooked it up on the previous one. That way I could boot knoppix and scope out the 40GB drive.
I've read about Master/Slave issues with (P)ATA/(E)IDE based systems and what not like this before but it's actually the first time I've ever seen the BIOS fail to detect and boot a drive, maybe previous systems I've worked on were just well cabled to avoid it ^_^.
There is a legit copy of windows on the drive and some files, so I may as well back that up just in case I need it later. 'Cuz I didn't get a copy of the restore disks from my brother when he gave me the PC, several months after he stripped it for 'parts' to use on his new custom PC. Right now I've got both of Vectra's hard drives installed, I would have put all three in it as there is enough space but I just don't have enough mounting brackets.
And while I'm willing to use a CD-ROM drive without mounting it in the case -- a hard drive is full of data so I take precautions. So I can dump it later if ever, right now it's on my desk. I had to get the drives sorted to move Vectras OpenBSD install cleanly over and install the PCI card for the wireless. That system is good to go as soon as I figure out how to get it working on my network, since OpenBSD 4.3 doesn't support my networks level of encryption and I'm not sure if my network supports the next ideal solution lol.
Afterwards I setup my desktop (SAL1600) with the last of the WiFi cards and for the heck of it, hooked up my spare monitor and configured Dual View on my nVidia 8400GS. I find it some what disorienting especially because the second monitor has very shitty colour compared to my primary. I also don't have another power cord to use with the other two PCs lol.
If I buy another power cable or two I can get all 4 computers running. I'm just itching for the phones to get sorted on the land lines so I can switch the modems and move the router to my bedroom, that way I can hook up one PC via Ethernet.
About 0000GMT I finally got to sit down and eat, took a nice long nap after that !!!!
* Ten Commands of C Programmers, annoted edition
I logged off for some shuteye around 0600 and awoke about 0836 or so when the people from our new ISP/Phone provider (we just bundled with the cable company). Managed to talk a little with the supervisor of the two about the setup involved, you could say the feeling that the other knew their ass from a hole in the ground was mutual >_>.
Because the cable boxes and the computer are on opposite sides of the rooms from the computers -- that's how the apartment was originally setup by a previous provider (Which was thrown out of the complex when the owners cut a deal with another company 0.o). So we had to go out and get some wireless cards, I paid for them as I agreed to if it would (and likely would) come to it.
So far, I've been cursed with shopping, practically stabbed in the eye, wondering why the bleeding heck our modems refuse to talk to my laptop or our router, and cannibalizing a pair of PCs, cut my finger, and I've been doing it all on ~2 hours sleep and a can of root beer !!!!!!
After drinking a bit of a root beer, we went out to get her shoppin' done and grab the cards, the plan was to be home in plenty of time to spare to get her and my (gaming) desktop hooked up so I could make it to Medics Live OP.
I was leaning over to put the water down when ma made an unexpected move of the arm and I nearly got the end of the car keys tip in my left eye. It must have only jabbed towards the point closer to the nose because I still have an eye left, it didn't hurt, and there is no sign of damage -- as much as I like MGS3, I really don't want to end up in an eye patch like Big Boss someday.
Thank GOD for protecting fools and star ships named Enterprise ;-)
While we were talking with someone at Best Buy, I asked the guy if they carried any RAM in the store and he sent me over to the Geek Squad (y). I got a 512mb dimm of PC2700 for Ma's computer along with three LInksys WMP54G PCI adapters and we hit Krogers.
I had a plan, I really did dang nab'it ! Check the manual for the ram speed to make sure the new chip was compatible (I bought PC2700 going by memory). Copy my Wifi data to each PC, setup the router, install each wifi card, and be *early* to the live op but it didn't work out that way.
First thing I did was plug in the router and try and set it up using DHCP instead of PPPoE but that didn't work. So I took the CAT-5e and hooked up the modem directly to my laptops on board Marvell Yukon and wondered, wtf is my modems address since it isn't offering DHCP services?
About 1930-1600Z I remembered the tenth commandment of C programmers*
Thou shalt foreswear, renounce, and abjure the vile heresy which claimeth that "All the world's a VAX", and have no commerce with the benighted heathens who cling to this barbarous belief, that the days of thy program may be long even though the days of thy current machine be short.
I ripped apart my desktop setup and hooked SAL up on the floor near the living room modem and plugged her in directly. Booted windows, opened IE7 just to be sure for compatibility, and sure enough got a welcome message from the modem! Oh go fsck yourselfs!!! But it works.
Setup the modem over HTTP, got a really fucking fast connection compared to AT&Ts aDSL line. A quick speed test out of Atlanta showed like 3-5 times the data rates we were getting!
After that I shutdown and used my now cleared desk as a work table. Cracked open Ma's Dell 4550 for a little cleaning, install the WMP54G, upgraded the RAM from 512mb to 768mb and took the desktops original stick of PC 2100. I found that her PC was running a PC2100 and a PC2700 sprig of 256MB at 266Mhz.
Then I cracked open Vectra (an HP Vli8 500+more PC100 ram) and my brothers junked Dell 4500 PC on the "operating table". The Dell is missing it's CD-ROM drives and Ethernet NIC. There were two EIDE hard drives when I first salvaged it, a 40GB Western Digital and an 80GB Hitachi. The 80GB has been in Vectra for awhile now as a secondary disk but I left the smaller 40GB due to lack of space.
I tried the 40GB to see if there was a working install of Windows left on it before formatting it, the BIOS couldn't boot off it. So I pulled the CD-ROM drive out of Vectra and popped myself in the head. I only had one set of mounting brackets left for the Dell case -- which while compatible with the hard drives don't fit the CD-ROM drive !!!
So I did something that is probably stupid but effective. Hooked up the CD-ROM to the PSU and secondary EIDE port on the mother board, sandwiching the drive between the case and the lid before I booted her. Then popped myself in the head again when the CD tray ejected 'upside down', I wondered why the power dongle needed to plug into the wrong side.
Flipped it over, rebooted and loaded Knoppix LiveCD but still couldn't access that 40GB drive. I know Live CDs are slow (and that drives dated 1999 and 32X max reading speed) but it was actually a _lot_ faster then I thought it would be on 256MB of PC2100. Then I took out Vectra's root disk an 8.4GB Maxtor hosting my OpenBSD installation and switched mounting brackets.
She still wouldn't boot, so I tried my boot floppy from OpenBSD 4.1 (I didn't use a floppy for the 4.2/4.3 upgrades). I shutdown and switched the cable to the other mate on the EIDE line and rebooted, worked perfectly. Then I stuck in the 40GB drive and hooked it up on the previous one. That way I could boot knoppix and scope out the 40GB drive.
I've read about Master/Slave issues with (P)ATA/(E)IDE based systems and what not like this before but it's actually the first time I've ever seen the BIOS fail to detect and boot a drive, maybe previous systems I've worked on were just well cabled to avoid it ^_^.
There is a legit copy of windows on the drive and some files, so I may as well back that up just in case I need it later. 'Cuz I didn't get a copy of the restore disks from my brother when he gave me the PC, several months after he stripped it for 'parts' to use on his new custom PC. Right now I've got both of Vectra's hard drives installed, I would have put all three in it as there is enough space but I just don't have enough mounting brackets.
And while I'm willing to use a CD-ROM drive without mounting it in the case -- a hard drive is full of data so I take precautions. So I can dump it later if ever, right now it's on my desk. I had to get the drives sorted to move Vectras OpenBSD install cleanly over and install the PCI card for the wireless. That system is good to go as soon as I figure out how to get it working on my network, since OpenBSD 4.3 doesn't support my networks level of encryption and I'm not sure if my network supports the next ideal solution lol.
Afterwards I setup my desktop (SAL1600) with the last of the WiFi cards and for the heck of it, hooked up my spare monitor and configured Dual View on my nVidia 8400GS. I find it some what disorienting especially because the second monitor has very shitty colour compared to my primary. I also don't have another power cord to use with the other two PCs lol.
If I buy another power cable or two I can get all 4 computers running. I'm just itching for the phones to get sorted on the land lines so I can switch the modems and move the router to my bedroom, that way I can hook up one PC via Ethernet.
About 0000GMT I finally got to sit down and eat, took a nice long nap after that !!!!
* Ten Commands of C Programmers, annoted edition
Friday, July 11, 2008
Note to self, don't use GNU m4 on Win32
Bah, humbug !!!
the focal point of the entire operation is a suitable pre-processor.
The idea:
defined test substitution macros generated by front end for pre processor
template file that relies upon said macros
output to be generated from preprocessing the macros from in the template.
The problem?
Target platform: MicroShaft Windows NT 5.1 (XP)
At first I figured I would use the C Pre-Processor since MinGW is on the target box, along with several other development tools.
Then I remembered I have GNU utilities for Win32 installed on this machine. So I took a look and found that a port of GNU m4 v1.4 is installed. I learned enough of the m4 'macro' language just for tasks like this but guess what!
m4.exe fails to expand all macros in the template file.
Being more then somewhat disappointed, I ssh'd into my OpenBSD machine and fed it through the m4 implementation it comes with (not GNU), and guess what?
That freaking works fine.
*unzips fly, pisses on m4.exe*
Odds are the 1.4.11 version of GNU m4 I have on FreeBSD installed from ports works, hell scripting OpenBSDs sed works for this task, let along custom perl !
So I've just used vim to quickly :%s/m4 defines/cpp defines and seem to have to use that in order to get it working. Nice, simple, and effective.
*grrrrr*
the focal point of the entire operation is a suitable pre-processor.
The idea:
defined test substitution macros generated by front end for pre processor
template file that relies upon said macros
output to be generated from preprocessing the macros from in the template.
The problem?
Target platform: MicroShaft Windows NT 5.1 (XP)
At first I figured I would use the C Pre-Processor since MinGW is on the target box, along with several other development tools.
Then I remembered I have GNU utilities for Win32 installed on this machine. So I took a look and found that a port of GNU m4 v1.4 is installed. I learned enough of the m4 'macro' language just for tasks like this but guess what!
m4.exe fails to expand all macros in the template file.
Being more then somewhat disappointed, I ssh'd into my OpenBSD machine and fed it through the m4 implementation it comes with (not GNU), and guess what?
That freaking works fine.
*unzips fly, pisses on m4.exe*
Odds are the 1.4.11 version of GNU m4 I have on FreeBSD installed from ports works, hell scripting OpenBSDs sed works for this task, let along custom perl !
So I've just used vim to quickly :%s/m4 defines/cpp defines and seem to have to use that in order to get it working. Nice, simple, and effective.
*grrrrr*
task list:
modify that module wiz wanted worked on ;-) --- tonight
finish neo ports manager --- on going
write article(s) for BSD Mag --- weekend, ongoing
write front end for a pre-processor and template based idea for work. -- now
Medics live op --- tomorrow
work on kde4 --- as soon as people let me
write specifications and carry out planning for project black widow -- classified until further notice.
finish neo ports manager --- on going
write article(s) for BSD Mag --- weekend, ongoing
write front end for a pre-processor and template based idea for work. -- now
Medics live op --- tomorrow
work on kde4 --- as soon as people let me
write specifications and carry out planning for project black widow -- classified until further notice.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Ahh another late night...
Spent about a half hour adjusting last nights work to use a more snappy display. I've also gotten the rest of the module done except for the final output to file, since that connects to a module that doesn't exist yet (note to self, create a dummy).
I've been spending a lot of time with C++ and Qt4 lately... I must say, it does grow on you! Although I do personally find Python and Ruby better suited for building prototypes but whatever works.
My heads telling me, I could stream roll a few more things that need trimmin' but I know if I did that, I would either end up going to bed about the time I need to report for work or worse, end up using Dixie as a pillow >_>. So I guess I'll have to do those the next night I work on this codebase, rather then tackle the next phase by then :\
Sleeping with your head propped on a laptops keyboard is probably not comfortable!
Hence it's bed time...
I've been spending a lot of time with C++ and Qt4 lately... I must say, it does grow on you! Although I do personally find Python and Ruby better suited for building prototypes but whatever works.
My heads telling me, I could stream roll a few more things that need trimmin' but I know if I did that, I would either end up going to bed about the time I need to report for work or worse, end up using Dixie as a pillow >_>. So I guess I'll have to do those the next night I work on this codebase, rather then tackle the next phase by then :\
Sleeping with your head propped on a laptops keyboard is probably not comfortable!
Hence it's bed time...
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
misc thoughts
Well some progress, aside from spending an embarrassing amount of time trying to find a problem starring me right in the face shouting "this is wrong you moron!", I suppose exhaustion can do that...
To be perfectly honest I think one of my biggest problems is my multi-lingual nature when it comes to programming. In the past couple days, I've used Bourne (with best buddies SED & AWK of course), Perl, Ruby, PHP, and C++ for various tasks.
In a large way, a language is just pretty much a language to me, a standard syntax, types, and subroutines if you will. Generally I think about solving problems in a way that doesn't really connect to a specific language. Sure I tend to write and think in a language of the moment but at the end of the day, the implementation is the language specific part -- not the solution.
When it's something that takes me a bit of thought, I usually write it done in a form of pseudo code that relates to how I read code.
Then start thinking about that, i.e. it's behavior: I dislike needing debugging aids when a brain will suffice. Then I start thinking about how to implement it, which often tends to lead to what language I'll be using if not already knee deep in it.
For example, when it comes to regular expressions I very, very greatly prefer Perl and Ruby for such tasks. Python in particular has always felt (to me) a bit chunky at regexes compared to Perl but to each their own methods. Heck, a lot of times a scratch and run Perl script is my way of testing regular expressions for things.
Tonight I needed to figure out how to process a programs output, I quickly found the QProcess class to be increasingly *annoying* so I threw it out in favor of popen() and the usual methods -- works like a charm. Then took a quick sample of the programs output, wrote a perl script to handle the operations upon it that was needed.
Then used the QRegExp and QString classes to implement the program using those regular expressions: skipping the compile time frustrations and indexing issues. Then proceeded to expand it into something able to meet my required behavior, after checking enough scenarios to validate it (to me). Then tested that to make sure it still behaved properly and moved on to using it to work on the next problem.
I've been using C++ a lot lately, really odd because I mostly quit using it after picking up C and Ruby a couple years ago lol.
0400, time for bed... but first it's snack time!!!
believe it or not but a few hours of working on the computer has a few side effects ^_^
To be perfectly honest I think one of my biggest problems is my multi-lingual nature when it comes to programming. In the past couple days, I've used Bourne (with best buddies SED & AWK of course), Perl, Ruby, PHP, and C++ for various tasks.
In a large way, a language is just pretty much a language to me, a standard syntax, types, and subroutines if you will. Generally I think about solving problems in a way that doesn't really connect to a specific language. Sure I tend to write and think in a language of the moment but at the end of the day, the implementation is the language specific part -- not the solution.
When it's something that takes me a bit of thought, I usually write it done in a form of pseudo code that relates to how I read code.
Then start thinking about that, i.e. it's behavior: I dislike needing debugging aids when a brain will suffice. Then I start thinking about how to implement it, which often tends to lead to what language I'll be using if not already knee deep in it.
For example, when it comes to regular expressions I very, very greatly prefer Perl and Ruby for such tasks. Python in particular has always felt (to me) a bit chunky at regexes compared to Perl but to each their own methods. Heck, a lot of times a scratch and run Perl script is my way of testing regular expressions for things.
Tonight I needed to figure out how to process a programs output, I quickly found the QProcess class to be increasingly *annoying* so I threw it out in favor of popen() and the usual methods -- works like a charm. Then took a quick sample of the programs output, wrote a perl script to handle the operations upon it that was needed.
Then used the QRegExp and QString classes to implement the program using those regular expressions: skipping the compile time frustrations and indexing issues. Then proceeded to expand it into something able to meet my required behavior, after checking enough scenarios to validate it (to me). Then tested that to make sure it still behaved properly and moved on to using it to work on the next problem.
I've been using C++ a lot lately, really odd because I mostly quit using it after picking up C and Ruby a couple years ago lol.
0400, time for bed... but first it's snack time!!!
believe it or not but a few hours of working on the computer has a few side effects ^_^
Monday, July 7, 2008
Writer's Block: The Best Thing You've Done
If you were to die now, at this moment, what would you think of as the best thing you've ever done in your life?
Submitted By weyyytictacs
Live Journals Writer's Block
To have loved.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Live Free or Die Hard
Great movie for the fourth time out :-)
It's like John McClane arguably has the worst luck of any character to ever grace the action flick scene. They send him to pick up a computer-noid and I'm thinking back to a scene in Mindnight Run when the bond guy tells him to whack'em over the head with a hose, toss'em in a bag, and drive back.
of course in McClanes case he gets shot at and almost blown up!
Live Free or Die Hard really depicts a horrible scenario for cyber terrorism. It's utterly horrifying when you consider how much American society has become reliant on technological networks, satellites, quick como between emergency services, geeze.
Still, it was some fine stuff at work hehe. The traffic jam in the tunnel, ramming a car into a helicopter because he's pissed off and out of bullets! Smashing through a building in an SUV, into the terrorist chick, and down an elevator shaft after being chucked out a window. A joint Strike Fighter trying to swat his stolen terro-big rig on the highway haha.
The ending, I just couldn't help be chuckle through it between how they finally took out Thomas Gabriel -> must've known plenty about computers but jack crap about geometry and physics when it involves bullets hehe. Not to mention the ending before they all end up on the way to a hospital >_>
****spoiler warning****
*** end spoiler warning ***
Honestly, it's like if John McClane ever took a vacation and let "someone else" handle it, he would probably end up sitting on a beach somewhere sipping a margarita and then terrorists pour in with machine guns -> it could only happen to him! lol
You could say, he really is always in the wrong place at the right time ;-)
Happy trails.
It's like John McClane arguably has the worst luck of any character to ever grace the action flick scene. They send him to pick up a computer-noid and I'm thinking back to a scene in Mindnight Run when the bond guy tells him to whack'em over the head with a hose, toss'em in a bag, and drive back.
of course in McClanes case he gets shot at and almost blown up!
Live Free or Die Hard really depicts a horrible scenario for cyber terrorism. It's utterly horrifying when you consider how much American society has become reliant on technological networks, satellites, quick como between emergency services, geeze.
Still, it was some fine stuff at work hehe. The traffic jam in the tunnel, ramming a car into a helicopter because he's pissed off and out of bullets! Smashing through a building in an SUV, into the terrorist chick, and down an elevator shaft after being chucked out a window. A joint Strike Fighter trying to swat his stolen terro-big rig on the highway haha.
The ending, I just couldn't help be chuckle through it between how they finally took out Thomas Gabriel -> must've known plenty about computers but jack crap about geometry and physics when it involves bullets hehe. Not to mention the ending before they all end up on the way to a hospital >_>
****spoiler warning****
Thomas Gabriel: On your tombstone it should say "Always in the wrong place at the wrong time".
John McClane: How about "Yippi-kay-ay, motherfu - "
[ later ]
Lucy McClane: Daddy, you're out of your mind.
John McClane: What're you talkin' about?
Lucy McClane: You shot yourself!
John McClane: [groaning] It seemed like a good idea at the time.
*** end spoiler warning ***
Honestly, it's like if John McClane ever took a vacation and let "someone else" handle it, he would probably end up sitting on a beach somewhere sipping a margarita and then terrorists pour in with machine guns -> it could only happen to him! lol
You could say, he really is always in the wrong place at the right time ;-)
Happy trails.
Speed Learning -- m4
Was on my way to bed (read sitting in front of my laptop <_<) and caught The One on TV just 10 minutes into it. I had seen part of it before but never got to see the second half :-(
Now in search of something else to watch, I noticed that Live Free or Die Hard starts in at 0140Q, it's currently 0112Q -- so...
Early today I found out that the m4 macro language processor is not a 'GNU Thing' although GNU m4 is used as part of the gnu tool chain. Since it's a language dating back to the 1970s and I could rather use something like m4 from the looks of it.
Let's see how much I can learn from FreeBSDs m4 manual page before the movie starts hehe :-)
Tick tock
Now in search of something else to watch, I noticed that Live Free or Die Hard starts in at 0140Q, it's currently 0112Q -- so...
Early today I found out that the m4 macro language processor is not a 'GNU Thing' although GNU m4 is used as part of the gnu tool chain. Since it's a language dating back to the 1970s and I could rather use something like m4 from the looks of it.
Let's see how much I can learn from FreeBSDs m4 manual page before the movie starts hehe :-)
Tick tock
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue
One song on yee old favorite radio station that I felt was aptly appropriate today:
They also had a lot of Johnny Cash tunes on hehe ;-)
American girls and American guys, will always stand up and salute.
We'll always recognize, when we see ol' glory flying,
There's a lot of men dead,
So we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our heads.
My daddy served in the army where he lost his right eye,
But he flew a flag out in our yard 'til the day that he died.
He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me.
To grow up and live happy in the land of the free.
Now this nation that I love is fallin' under attack.
A mighty sucker-punch came flying in from somewhere in the back.
Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye,
Man, we lit up your world like the fourth of July.
Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue.
Oh, justice will be served and the battle will rage:
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage.
An' you'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A.
'Cos we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way.
Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue.
Oh, oh.
Of the red, white and blue.
Oh, hey, oh.
Of my Red, White and Blue.
-- Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue., Keith Toby
They also had a lot of Johnny Cash tunes on hehe ;-)
Friday, July 4, 2008
On the war path...
The !%*)Y!)% !(%Y)! %)! %)! %)&! (%() !@%!#@!% !%! !!!
I'm sitting here working on C++/Qt4 code and my music is cutting in/out and vim starts to lag. Ok, I figure it is either some process gone wachko eating system resources (which top suggested was not the case) or the router is going fuckers again.
Sure enough, everything relating to my network shares hangs -> I do a power cycle on the AP with no luck. Full reboot and still arguing...
pinging my ap gives < 2ms to > 200ms responses and an apparent average of 20-40% package loss +/- an extra 5-7% and things are still getting rat fucked here. One test, standing right next to the aerials I was getting upwards of 10-15% packet loss for crying out fucking loud.
I'm so going to kill something when I get to the bottom of this....
This level of connectivity starvation is proving to be lethal to the whole write/compile/test cycle, hell even the web browser is dying a laggy death trying to write in this text area. Which means I'm likely to loose the nights work.
That means, if I find the source of this interference, which appears to be costing me over 4 hours of optimal work time remaining on this code base.... there will be a Spidey on the war path -- hardware or neighborer related.
I'm sitting here working on C++/Qt4 code and my music is cutting in/out and vim starts to lag. Ok, I figure it is either some process gone wachko eating system resources (which top suggested was not the case) or the router is going fuckers again.
Sure enough, everything relating to my network shares hangs -> I do a power cycle on the AP with no luck. Full reboot and still arguing...
pinging my ap gives < 2ms to > 200ms responses and an apparent average of 20-40% package loss +/- an extra 5-7% and things are still getting rat fucked here. One test, standing right next to the aerials I was getting upwards of 10-15% packet loss for crying out fucking loud.
I'm so going to kill something when I get to the bottom of this....
This level of connectivity starvation is proving to be lethal to the whole write/compile/test cycle, hell even the web browser is dying a laggy death trying to write in this text area. Which means I'm likely to loose the nights work.
That means, if I find the source of this interference, which appears to be costing me over 4 hours of optimal work time remaining on this code base.... there will be a Spidey on the war path -- hardware or neighborer related.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Hmm, there is a very fine Italian expression but I won't do it the dis justice of trying to spell it :\.
Day originally was planned as a work day, became a day off, became a job interview -- the house from hell so to speak, in terms of having to work in it but otherwise a decent gig.
A friends having a hard time, brings up more then a few... uncomfortable memories but I can generally sympatise.
Spent about an hour talking with Rasa over the colour of the bike shed, only about 10-15 minutes was actually productive :|
After that, considering that between my family, my work, and Rasa, I was over 2.5 hours behind schedule... On a day I planned to hash through task after task after task. I decided to use some of the time otherwise getting wasted for me, to join the server.
Got in a few good rounds on PG#1, ain't played RvS in a couple since I've spent most of my server time either training Jonsi or camping the SWAT4 server ;-). I was surprised to see that my accuracy is still doing good, each round I did between 70-90% hits and saw most of them through to completion.
After that, I ended up joining Duke for a couple games before I had to drop to finish my chores. Honestly, joining friends on the servers is probably the biggest break from projects I get !!!
Was watching The Abyss after dinner. Pretty good movie but reminds me, you couldn't pay me to serve on a submarine. At least if a ship goes down, you have some chance if ya don't freeze to death. But on a sub, it is not quite that easy to get out lol.
One strange thing, while I find the idea of being in such situations some what disturbing. I really think of the idea of space travel as quite fun lol.
Maybe because I never really learned how to swim? I dunno lol. After all, in the vacum of space your dead... In water, well you might drown but you also might get through Point A and Point B alive if you don't run out of air +S
Day originally was planned as a work day, became a day off, became a job interview -- the house from hell so to speak, in terms of having to work in it but otherwise a decent gig.
A friends having a hard time, brings up more then a few... uncomfortable memories but I can generally sympatise.
Spent about an hour talking with Rasa over the colour of the bike shed, only about 10-15 minutes was actually productive :|
After that, considering that between my family, my work, and Rasa, I was over 2.5 hours behind schedule... On a day I planned to hash through task after task after task. I decided to use some of the time otherwise getting wasted for me, to join the server.
Got in a few good rounds on PG#1, ain't played RvS in a couple since I've spent most of my server time either training Jonsi or camping the SWAT4 server ;-). I was surprised to see that my accuracy is still doing good, each round I did between 70-90% hits and saw most of them through to completion.
After that, I ended up joining Duke for a couple games before I had to drop to finish my chores. Honestly, joining friends on the servers is probably the biggest break from projects I get !!!
Was watching The Abyss after dinner. Pretty good movie but reminds me, you couldn't pay me to serve on a submarine. At least if a ship goes down, you have some chance if ya don't freeze to death. But on a sub, it is not quite that easy to get out lol.
One strange thing, while I find the idea of being in such situations some what disturbing. I really think of the idea of space travel as quite fun lol.
Maybe because I never really learned how to swim? I dunno lol. After all, in the vacum of space your dead... In water, well you might drown but you also might get through Point A and Point B alive if you don't run out of air +S
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Wondering if I have any braincells remaining
Tired ....
Been working on a program for [SAS], was rather hoping to get it finished tonight but, time after work != cooperative. It's only 0457 Zulu but my brains fragged, can't concentrate on the code anymore.
Hopefully tomorrow, I can get it finished, it shouldn't be that hard should it?
I only...
Need to finish testing the parser
Write the network interface
Write the display code.
or something like that. With luck, I'll be off work so I'll get to sleep in hopefully. I'm used to nodding off around local 0200-0700 and getting up around local 0930-0945 to get dressed (quickly!) for work. So, I like it when I have a chance to sleep a bit more lol.
Today was fairly good at work but it's still one of two most strainous jobs of my week. And my family sure as fuck doesn't help, hmm... Maybe if there was anyone in this rats nest that actually understood a lick of this, they might be less inclined to piss me off while I'm workin' on something.
*sigh*
For much of the day, I've felt like shouting "If you don't let me code today, I will go insane and I will take you with me!" but I know that would just be childish :\.
A sledge hammer would work much more effectively ^_^
Been working on a program for [SAS], was rather hoping to get it finished tonight but, time after work != cooperative. It's only 0457 Zulu but my brains fragged, can't concentrate on the code anymore.
Hopefully tomorrow, I can get it finished, it shouldn't be that hard should it?
I only...
Need to finish testing the parser
Write the network interface
Write the display code.
or something like that. With luck, I'll be off work so I'll get to sleep in hopefully. I'm used to nodding off around local 0200-0700 and getting up around local 0930-0945 to get dressed (quickly!) for work. So, I like it when I have a chance to sleep a bit more lol.
Today was fairly good at work but it's still one of two most strainous jobs of my week. And my family sure as fuck doesn't help, hmm... Maybe if there was anyone in this rats nest that actually understood a lick of this, they might be less inclined to piss me off while I'm workin' on something.
*sigh*
For much of the day, I've felt like shouting "If you don't let me code today, I will go insane and I will take you with me!" but I know that would just be childish :\.
A sledge hammer would work much more effectively ^_^
Monday, June 30, 2008
Helping people move != for the lazy
I'm bushed ...
My sisters finally moved out, so most of the day was spent helping her. Although I did get ome break time with Dixie to work on a little Qt'coding. After the end of that, I got stuck helping ma re arrange stuff here (oy). Including having to take apart a bed, move a sewing machine, etc.
Had a couple rounds of SWAT4: TSS on PG#3 with Chester before dinner, and a good nap after that! Sitting here watching Tango & Cash,
My sisters finally moved out, so most of the day was spent helping her. Although I did get ome break time with Dixie to work on a little Qt'coding. After the end of that, I got stuck helping ma re arrange stuff here (oy). Including having to take apart a bed, move a sewing machine, etc.
Had a couple rounds of SWAT4: TSS on PG#3 with Chester before dinner, and a good nap after that! Sitting here watching Tango & Cash,
zzzZzzzzZzzz
So tired...
The [SAS] Killhouse Redux is coming along nicely, haven't been able to figure out one of the extra's I wanted... but level 1A is now feature complete, pardoning the stairs. Level 2A is aout 40% done, the second wing, ladies room, and two more hotel rooms need furnishing + a wee bit of work in the hallway (decorations).
So far, the map is coming along pretty nice all things considered. I've also got some plans for a few 'secret' area's just to make things interesting. Hehe, if I'm the smoe making the map, why not have a little fun?
The question is how long will it take the membership to find them ^_^
On another note, I've been trying to replace Konversation as my IRC client for *nix. Many KDE apps on my laptop seem to suffer greatly on performance when being run under fvwm instead of a full kde session. I tested out tirc, which is nice and handy -- even has Vi based key bindings ^_^. The only problem is the bus error when forcing a nick greater then the 9-char standard and doing a call to the nickserv bot.
So far, it looks like it will probably boil down to learning either BitchX or irssi.
The only IRC clients I've really liked in the past have been, Konversation (the best!), Chatzilla, and X-Chat. But I'm not really in the mood for needing a web browser to run an IRC client, nor in using X-Chat again. Nice client but eh, kinda boring.
I really need to get some time to focus on KDE4, between family, life, and work. I'm behind schedule on everything these days :\
Dang it... I need a vacation !!!!
The [SAS] Killhouse Redux is coming along nicely, haven't been able to figure out one of the extra's I wanted... but level 1A is now feature complete, pardoning the stairs. Level 2A is aout 40% done, the second wing, ladies room, and two more hotel rooms need furnishing + a wee bit of work in the hallway (decorations).
So far, the map is coming along pretty nice all things considered. I've also got some plans for a few 'secret' area's just to make things interesting. Hehe, if I'm the smoe making the map, why not have a little fun?
The question is how long will it take the membership to find them ^_^
On another note, I've been trying to replace Konversation as my IRC client for *nix. Many KDE apps on my laptop seem to suffer greatly on performance when being run under fvwm instead of a full kde session. I tested out tirc, which is nice and handy -- even has Vi based key bindings ^_^. The only problem is the bus error when forcing a nick greater then the 9-char standard and doing a call to the nickserv bot.
So far, it looks like it will probably boil down to learning either BitchX or irssi.
The only IRC clients I've really liked in the past have been, Konversation (the best!), Chatzilla, and X-Chat. But I'm not really in the mood for needing a web browser to run an IRC client, nor in using X-Chat again. Nice client but eh, kinda boring.
I really need to get some time to focus on KDE4, between family, life, and work. I'm behind schedule on everything these days :\
Dang it... I need a vacation !!!!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Hmm, all in all quite a fun day.
Us guys went out, knocked over a Gandolfo's Delicatessen for a couple nathan's coney island dog (bad sadly without sauce :-(). I'm not exactly a big fan of hot dogs but when it involves Nathan's famous dogs -- I'm up for it >_>.
Three of us wandered around town for a couple hours before Uncle Pat and Aunt Ruth went off to Mass. Me and my brother sat outside, him smoking and I pacing while we talked lol. I wish he wouldn't smoke but, better sugars then cigarettes I guess :\. Afterward he played a bit of BF2 on my PC, he's a good sniper but heck... Tactically and technique wise, I think if he ever took one of our tryouts in [SAS], he'd probably score below the no retake mark lol.
Once everyone got here, we went out to Red Lobster for diner. In my case, riding with my bro and listing to Nickelback on the way. To be honest, I think I am the _only_ one in this family that doesn't blast music +S. It's good music but, I kinda would like to avoid hearing damage >_>
Just like our mother, he blasts it loud as it will go... Me, if someone walks through the hallway I turn it down or mute it when I've got music going lol.
Us guys went out, knocked over a Gandolfo's Delicatessen for a couple nathan's coney island dog (bad sadly without sauce :-(). I'm not exactly a big fan of hot dogs but when it involves Nathan's famous dogs -- I'm up for it >_>.
Three of us wandered around town for a couple hours before Uncle Pat and Aunt Ruth went off to Mass. Me and my brother sat outside, him smoking and I pacing while we talked lol. I wish he wouldn't smoke but, better sugars then cigarettes I guess :\. Afterward he played a bit of BF2 on my PC, he's a good sniper but heck... Tactically and technique wise, I think if he ever took one of our tryouts in [SAS], he'd probably score below the no retake mark lol.
Once everyone got here, we went out to Red Lobster for diner. In my case, riding with my bro and listing to Nickelback on the way. To be honest, I think I am the _only_ one in this family that doesn't blast music +S. It's good music but, I kinda would like to avoid hearing damage >_>
Just like our mother, he blasts it loud as it will go... Me, if someone walks through the hallway I turn it down or mute it when I've got music going lol.
Friday, June 27, 2008
The nights travels
Just got home a couple of hours ago, my mothers GOD parents came down to celebrate my Birthday during their travels.
Another all you can eat night ;-)
I probably shouldn't have had a huge lunch, but I enjoy the food anyway lol.
Looks like tomorrow it will probably be me, my brother, and ma's GOD father out bowling and then the entire family out for dinner later on. I can't bowl worth a Russian modem but. Who knows, might be fun.
Since Ma hasn't been included much in the plans as far a her original plans, she's a bit pissy. I hate to say it about my seniors but I'd describe it as childish behavior :\. Either way, tomorrow promises to be a full day...
Another all you can eat night ;-)
I probably shouldn't have had a huge lunch, but I enjoy the food anyway lol.
Looks like tomorrow it will probably be me, my brother, and ma's GOD father out bowling and then the entire family out for dinner later on. I can't bowl worth a Russian modem but. Who knows, might be fun.
Since Ma hasn't been included much in the plans as far a her original plans, she's a bit pissy. I hate to say it about my seniors but I'd describe it as childish behavior :\. Either way, tomorrow promises to be a full day...
I really need a vacation
Thursday, June 26, 2008
BSD Forever
Well, my Darling Dixie is now running FreeBSD 7.0-Release :-)
I finished last minute backups of files and off loaded them to Vecta, just in case hehe. Unlocked my wireless network and installed from the three CDs I have for FreeBSD 7.0-Release. Since I don't use the CD sets to install more extras then X.Org, I only needed disk one as usual.
I almost always use a custom installation of FreeBSD because I find it more expedient and very concise. Used sysinstall to finish the last bit of configuration before the first boot: nfs client on, sshd on, dhcp on ath0, set root password.
With the first boot I mounted my backups over NFS, copied the over and unpacked for reference -- rc.conf, rc.conf.local, xorg.conf, and wpa_supplicant.conf. I also setup my users and groups via pw and edited loader.conf to load my sound driver.
Merged changes as desired into rc.conf and an xorg.conf file generated via X -configure. Then copied over a small script I had made to automate installing most software I use and started a review of it while running porsnap on anohtr vtty.
While the script ran, I poked around /usr/src with vi to pass the time. All went well until I started getting funky errors from pkg_add. Killing the script, I checked with df and sure enough, / was showing at 107% of capacity! Now that all is said and done, it seems I miscalculated about 600MB of dependencies lol.
problem solved. I also found out the hard way that the csh is a pain in the ass, hence starting a new shell to handle the removal of empty packages. Used the scroll lock to check the terminals backlog for the last successful package add and modified my script to pick up where it left off.
/usr/pkgs is 834M of packages -- just in case I need to reinstall, I won't have to download them from my $PACKAGEROOT again, I can just bring them over from Vectra and save bandwidth for both my favorite mirror and myself.
I also had a bit of a problem with some port installations failing with strange pkg-descr missing messages, found out today while wrapping up that it was referecin $PKGDIR => /usr/pkgs :\.
my packing list so far:
I had to install the ports manually because of the $PKGDIR thing, did that this afternoon. Which amounted to multimedia/libdvdcss, x11-wm/fvwm-devel, sysutils/gkrellm2, and just for the heck of it, www/linux-flashplugin9 and www/flashplugin-mozilla hehe. I also had the JDK and JRE packages in cold storage from my last installation, so no need for manual fetching them.
Some last minute additions were gdm and trayer -- I actually like Gnomes Display Manager. I still need to compile mencoder, maybe install a few Perl/Python/Ruby binndings for good measure, etc but I'm basically done.
One thing that shocked me, The flash plugin v9 is working !!! I installed it just to see if the thing would crash my webbrowser but it works :\
I need to get pf, sshd, and my kernel configuration setup and probably play with freebsd-update (I've never used it) but I'm essentially ready to rock and roll, it only took about 4 hours, because I downloaded all of the packages I wanted.
Compared to reinstalling Windows XP? Hahahahhahahahah !!!!
If I ever reformated my XP machine, it would take 3 hours to install XP from the vendors disks, 2 weeks to download all of the hotfixes, updates, and patches and crap, reinstall my firewall and ruleset from backup, then systematically install all of my games, programs, and such by manually visiting each website or inserting each disk -- then spend time re-shoehorning XP into something livable with all of the little setting tweaks here and there.
FreeBSD, back online in a flash -- hehe.
I finished last minute backups of files and off loaded them to Vecta, just in case hehe. Unlocked my wireless network and installed from the three CDs I have for FreeBSD 7.0-Release. Since I don't use the CD sets to install more extras then X.Org, I only needed disk one as usual.
I almost always use a custom installation of FreeBSD because I find it more expedient and very concise. Used sysinstall to finish the last bit of configuration before the first boot: nfs client on, sshd on, dhcp on ath0, set root password.
With the first boot I mounted my backups over NFS, copied the over and unpacked for reference -- rc.conf, rc.conf.local, xorg.conf, and wpa_supplicant.conf. I also setup my users and groups via pw and edited loader.conf to load my sound driver.
Merged changes as desired into rc.conf and an xorg.conf file generated via X -configure. Then copied over a small script I had made to automate installing most software I use and started a review of it while running porsnap on anohtr vtty.
While the script ran, I poked around /usr/src with vi to pass the time. All went well until I started getting funky errors from pkg_add. Killing the script, I checked with df and sure enough, / was showing at 107% of capacity! Now that all is said and done, it seems I miscalculated about 600MB of dependencies lol.
mv /root/pkgs /usr/pkgs
sh
for JUNK in `du -ch /usr/pkgs/* | grep 0B | awk '{ print $2 }'`; do rm $JUNK; done
problem solved. I also found out the hard way that the csh is a pain in the ass, hence starting a new shell to handle the removal of empty packages. Used the scroll lock to check the terminals backlog for the last successful package add and modified my script to pick up where it left off.
/usr/pkgs is 834M of packages -- just in case I need to reinstall, I won't have to download them from my $PACKAGEROOT again, I can just bring them over from Vectra and save bandwidth for both my favorite mirror and myself.
I also had a bit of a problem with some port installations failing with strange pkg-descr missing messages, found out today while wrapping up that it was referecin $PKGDIR => /usr/pkgs :\.
my packing list so far:
#!/bin/sh
cd /where/ever
# environment / compat
PKGDIR="`pwd`/pkgs"; export PKGDIR
GCC_VER="42"
PHP_VER="5"
MYSQL_VER="50"
pkg_add -Kr compat6x-i386
# languages
pkg_add -Kr javavmwrapper
# manual install needed for JDK/JRE
(cd $PKGDIR; pkg_add diablo-jdk-freebsd6.i386.1.5.0.07.01.tbz)
(cd $PKGDIR; pkg_add diablo-jre-freebsd6.i386.1.5.0.07.01.tbz)
pkg_add -Kr gcc${GCC_VER}
pkg_add -Kr perl
pkg_add -Kr python
pkg_add -Kr php${PHP_VER}
pkg_add -Kr ruby
pkg_add -Kr rubygem-rtags && pkg_add -r rubygem-rake
pkg_add -Kr guile
pkg_add -Kr scheme48
# libraries
pkg_add -Kr qt4
pkg_add -Kr gtk-2
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBI
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBD-mysql${MYSQL_VER}
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBI-SQLite
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBI-CSV
pkg_add -Kr p5-Digest
# development tools
pkg_add -Kr gmake
pkg_add -Kr ctags
pkg_add -Kr cscope && pkg_add -Kr kscope
pkg_add -Kr webcpp
pkg_add -Kr subversion
# games
pkg_add -Kr kdegames
pkg_add -Kr xgalaga
pkg_add -Kr prboom
pkg_add -Kr doom-data
pkg_add -Kr wesnoth
pkg_add -Kr supertux
pkg_add -Kr chromium
# graphics software
pkg_add -Kr gimp && pkg_add -Kr gimp-gap
pkg_add -Kr inkscape
pkg_add -Kr xv
pkg_add -Kr kdegraphics
pkg_add -Kr dia
# browsers
pkg_add -Kr linux-flock
pkg_add -Kr lynx
# e-mail and news
pkg_add -Kr thunderbird && pkg_add -Kr thunderbird-i18n
pkg_add -Kr mutt
# kontact and related
pkg_add -Kr kdepim
# chat
pkg_add -Kr konversation
pkg_add -Kr pidgin && pkg_add -Kr pidgin-hotkeys
pkg_add -Kr pidgin-guifications && pkg_add -Kr pidgin-libnotify
pkg_add -Kr pidgin-otr && pkg_add -Kr pidgin-encryption
pkg_add -Kr teamspeak_client
# install vim / emacs
pkg_add -Kr emacs || pkg_add -Kr xemacs
pkg_add -Kr mg
(bunzip vim-7.1.tar.bz2; tar -C /tmp -xf vim-7.1.tar; cd /tmp/vim71/src; \
./configure \
--enable-perlinterp --enable-pythoninterp --enable-rubyinterp \
--with-x --enable-cscope --enable-fontset --enable-gnome-check \
--with-features=huge --enable-gui=gtk2 && gmake && gmake install)
# multimedia
pkg_add -Kr nspluginwrapper
pkg_add -Kr libdvdread
pkg_add -Kr libdvdplay
pkg_add -Kr libdvdnav
pkg_add -Kr cdrtools
pkg_add -Kr mplayer
pkg_add -Kr linux-mplayerplug-in
pkg_add -Kr xmms && pkg_add -Kr xmms-pipe && pkg_add -Kr xmms-skins
pkg_add -Kr k3b
# this is an rpm
(cd /usr/ports/multimedia/linux-realplayer && make install clean distclean)
# documents
pkg_add -Kr gnumeric && pkg_add -Kr abiword
pkg_add -Kr koffice
# personal
pkg_add -Kr zsh
pkg_add -Kr rxvt-unicode
pkg_add -Kr terminus-font
pkg_add -Kr windowmaker
pkg_add -Kr blackbox
pkg_add -Kr bbkeys && pkg_add -r bbrun && pkg_add -r bbpager
pkg_add -Kr docker
pkg_add -Kr hsetroot
pkg_add -Kr fastest_cvsup
pkg_add -Kr psearch
# misc
pkg_add -Kr bsdstats
pkg_add -Kr amarok
pkg_add -Kr lzma
pkg_add -Kr unrar
pkg_add -Kr zip
pkg_add -Kr e2fsprogs
pkg_add -Kr pdksh
pkg_add -Kr sudo
pkg_add -Kr v7sh
pkg_add -Kr xcb
I had to install the ports manually because of the $PKGDIR thing, did that this afternoon. Which amounted to multimedia/libdvdcss, x11-wm/fvwm-devel, sysutils/gkrellm2, and just for the heck of it, www/linux-flashplugin9 and www/flashplugin-mozilla hehe. I also had the JDK and JRE packages in cold storage from my last installation, so no need for manual fetching them.
Some last minute additions were gdm and trayer -- I actually like Gnomes Display Manager. I still need to compile mencoder, maybe install a few Perl/Python/Ruby binndings for good measure, etc but I'm basically done.
One thing that shocked me, The flash plugin v9 is working !!! I installed it just to see if the thing would crash my webbrowser but it works :\
I need to get pf, sshd, and my kernel configuration setup and probably play with freebsd-update (I've never used it) but I'm essentially ready to rock and roll, it only took about 4 hours, because I downloaded all of the packages I wanted.
Compared to reinstalling Windows XP? Hahahahhahahahah !!!!
If I ever reformated my XP machine, it would take 3 hours to install XP from the vendors disks, 2 weeks to download all of the hotfixes, updates, and patches and crap, reinstall my firewall and ruleset from backup, then systematically install all of my games, programs, and such by manually visiting each website or inserting each disk -- then spend time re-shoehorning XP into something livable with all of the little setting tweaks here and there.
FreeBSD, back online in a flash -- hehe.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Map making time?
Spent 90% of the day working on trying to make The [SAS] Kill House Redux map a reality. I'm a couple months ahead of schedule so far, most of Level 1A is complete and who knows what will become of Level 1B... hehe.
I think the hardest thing probably has been the lighting, it has to be reasonably realistic. But at the same time, it really would help to not need a flash light just to see the weapon in your hands >_>. When you ain't got one to choose from design wise, ya never realize how useful windows really are !!!
Level 1A is pretty simple, spawn point, ~30m long hallway ending in a T-Junction. And a number of small to large rooms; exploring center doors, corner doors, threat points, multiple entries, etc. In a very basic manor, just perfect for basic training work. Level 2A, is meant to be more of a "simulation" environment then a clean room.
Decorating the spawn point, since most of Level 1A is meant to be unfurnished was kind of fun. The desks are kind of personalized to my tastes hehe. I also put a sign up which I feel fits quite well in several meanings of it, only I know them all ^_^.
Just for the heck of it, I'm considering putting in a secret room... Hey, why not have an office or something hehehe.
I'm looking forward to Level 2A and the challenge involved but joining my teammates in training on it will be sweeter still.
I think the hardest thing probably has been the lighting, it has to be reasonably realistic. But at the same time, it really would help to not need a flash light just to see the weapon in your hands >_>. When you ain't got one to choose from design wise, ya never realize how useful windows really are !!!
Level 1A is pretty simple, spawn point, ~30m long hallway ending in a T-Junction. And a number of small to large rooms; exploring center doors, corner doors, threat points, multiple entries, etc. In a very basic manor, just perfect for basic training work. Level 2A, is meant to be more of a "simulation" environment then a clean room.
Decorating the spawn point, since most of Level 1A is meant to be unfurnished was kind of fun. The desks are kind of personalized to my tastes hehe. I also put a sign up which I feel fits quite well in several meanings of it, only I know them all ^_^.
Just for the heck of it, I'm considering putting in a secret room... Hey, why not have an office or something hehehe.
I'm looking forward to Level 2A and the challenge involved but joining my teammates in training on it will be sweeter still.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Recent activities.
Havn't had a lot of spare time lately :\
Survived my 20th birthday on the 20th, makes me wonder if I'm starting to get old in my own way lol.
My brother called and wished me a happy birthday, was good to talk with him even if I had to put up with a 'lecture' 8=). I know the old axim is "those who can't do, teach" but in my families case it is lecture >_>.
Night before my birthday I managed to polish off one of my favorite burgers from Ruby Tuesdays. I remember the first time I had one, hehe a few years back I was the only guy involved in a project. So the girls had to throw a birthday party and what else but The Ultimate Colossal Burger xD
They always did know how to throw a party lol.
Ma also made 2lbs of Chili, so I've been feasting on that for the past couple days, hmm now that I think of it.. A little chili would hit the spot about now ;).
I spent most of my birthday eating, sleeping, and coding -- three good things, especially since sleep is a premium for me +S. I ain't done much of anything in C++ in about 3 years, sad considering November will be my fourth anniversary. But I've really been enjoying the C++/Qt4 work of late, even better I've got suitable development environments on my laptop and desktop. Lunch was a trip to the best all you can eat joint in town, so that went well hehe.
Still, it's all overshadowed by one thing... But I guess that's a different subject.
I've managed to get a bit of training in this weekend, been concentrating on the fundamentals of room clearing for Jonsi's training. One nice thing about teaching it, I've been doing it enough in the virtual world, that I parts of it flow into the real world lol.
Ok, so is it that bad if you tend to stack on doors and button-hook entries ? haha
Started work today on a diagram for a new swat4 map, The [SAS] Killhouse Redux. I've got over 25 rooms and two floors with concepts for adding another wing on the first floor. What I like the most about the design, it's trivial to build it in bits and pieces. Level 1As first wing, then the other wing or Level 2A, etc. My original "dream" for the ultimate training facility included like a 5-6 floor shooting house but no map maker got into the project.
The only big problem is me and the Unreal Editor used mix like water and oil. I should be happy though, as crappy as SwatEd is it really is less bothersome then the UnrealEd build shipped with Raven Shield. Although I'm more used to the Rvs build... At least the S4 one doesn't crash so often!
I can do almost anything I set my mind to, it's just a matter of time. Tomorrow I need to inhale one of the tutorials and set to work on more of the map. The main problem atm is adjusting the objectives, although I reckon I could always make a room in the middle of no where full of tangos lol. The old [SAS] Killhouse in RvS that we used to use before I even got here, had a lone tango hidden behind boxes. But that was more so because of issues with the game design, Swat4 is a little less, ehh irksome.
Today I also got some time on the SWAT4:TSS server for the first time in a good while, I really miss that game lol. The only bad thing I can say, is the MP5s don't support full auto. I'd rather have a trusty MP5N but hey, the devs had to make it more 'balanced' :\. The UMP.45 fires at about 300 RPM on their own scale and on full auto, while the MP5 is limited to three round bursts as respective alternatives to semi automatic.
I really prefer full auto because I can control the bursts. In RvS, I often like to use the MP5/10A2 because the way it was implemented. You can't hit shit past about 30 metres and if you fire more then 2 rounds at a time, you won't (consistantly) hit shit to start with ! The FAMAS G2 also has such a high rate of fire, that it's great fun to put on full auto and try to fire one round from it per trigger pull.
SWAT4 has one of the worst simulations of ballistics I've ever seen but, Rvs has good shooting but the worlds most unreal physics.
Tomorrows plans, map making and training ops. With how long it's been since I've really played SWAT4, I think I should take some drill time to work on my usual reflexive plan.
3-round burst to centre mass then follow up with a double tap or another burst to the noggin.
Me, I fire a lot of rounds per kill -- because I keep firing till the f****er goes down. The advantage of video games is, once they die they start to fall over dead (realistically or not). The disadvantage is unlike the real world, getting shot doesn't have much effect on the enemy. At the best you might jar their shots (rvs) or stun them briefly (swat4) for another follow up shot.
What I really would love to do some day, is set up sensors on the monitor and a laser pointer on a model weapon. And have the sensors on the screen detect the movements of the laser beam across their own beams and use that to generate mouse movement-input for the operating system.
That would make aiming a lot more reflexive then a mouse lol.
Survived my 20th birthday on the 20th, makes me wonder if I'm starting to get old in my own way lol.
My brother called and wished me a happy birthday, was good to talk with him even if I had to put up with a 'lecture' 8=). I know the old axim is "those who can't do, teach" but in my families case it is lecture >_>.
Night before my birthday I managed to polish off one of my favorite burgers from Ruby Tuesdays. I remember the first time I had one, hehe a few years back I was the only guy involved in a project. So the girls had to throw a birthday party and what else but The Ultimate Colossal Burger xD
They always did know how to throw a party lol.
Ma also made 2lbs of Chili, so I've been feasting on that for the past couple days, hmm now that I think of it.. A little chili would hit the spot about now ;).
I spent most of my birthday eating, sleeping, and coding -- three good things, especially since sleep is a premium for me +S. I ain't done much of anything in C++ in about 3 years, sad considering November will be my fourth anniversary. But I've really been enjoying the C++/Qt4 work of late, even better I've got suitable development environments on my laptop and desktop. Lunch was a trip to the best all you can eat joint in town, so that went well hehe.
Still, it's all overshadowed by one thing... But I guess that's a different subject.
I've managed to get a bit of training in this weekend, been concentrating on the fundamentals of room clearing for Jonsi's training. One nice thing about teaching it, I've been doing it enough in the virtual world, that I parts of it flow into the real world lol.
Ok, so is it that bad if you tend to stack on doors and button-hook entries ? haha
Started work today on a diagram for a new swat4 map, The [SAS] Killhouse Redux. I've got over 25 rooms and two floors with concepts for adding another wing on the first floor. What I like the most about the design, it's trivial to build it in bits and pieces. Level 1As first wing, then the other wing or Level 2A, etc. My original "dream" for the ultimate training facility included like a 5-6 floor shooting house but no map maker got into the project.
The only big problem is me and the Unreal Editor used mix like water and oil. I should be happy though, as crappy as SwatEd is it really is less bothersome then the UnrealEd build shipped with Raven Shield. Although I'm more used to the Rvs build... At least the S4 one doesn't crash so often!
I can do almost anything I set my mind to, it's just a matter of time. Tomorrow I need to inhale one of the tutorials and set to work on more of the map. The main problem atm is adjusting the objectives, although I reckon I could always make a room in the middle of no where full of tangos lol. The old [SAS] Killhouse in RvS that we used to use before I even got here, had a lone tango hidden behind boxes. But that was more so because of issues with the game design, Swat4 is a little less, ehh irksome.
Today I also got some time on the SWAT4:TSS server for the first time in a good while, I really miss that game lol. The only bad thing I can say, is the MP5s don't support full auto. I'd rather have a trusty MP5N but hey, the devs had to make it more 'balanced' :\. The UMP.45 fires at about 300 RPM on their own scale and on full auto, while the MP5 is limited to three round bursts as respective alternatives to semi automatic.
I really prefer full auto because I can control the bursts. In RvS, I often like to use the MP5/10A2 because the way it was implemented. You can't hit shit past about 30 metres and if you fire more then 2 rounds at a time, you won't (consistantly) hit shit to start with ! The FAMAS G2 also has such a high rate of fire, that it's great fun to put on full auto and try to fire one round from it per trigger pull.
SWAT4 has one of the worst simulations of ballistics I've ever seen but, Rvs has good shooting but the worlds most unreal physics.
Tomorrows plans, map making and training ops. With how long it's been since I've really played SWAT4, I think I should take some drill time to work on my usual reflexive plan.
3-round burst to centre mass then follow up with a double tap or another burst to the noggin.
Me, I fire a lot of rounds per kill -- because I keep firing till the f****er goes down. The advantage of video games is, once they die they start to fall over dead (realistically or not). The disadvantage is unlike the real world, getting shot doesn't have much effect on the enemy. At the best you might jar their shots (rvs) or stun them briefly (swat4) for another follow up shot.
What I really would love to do some day, is set up sensors on the monitor and a laser pointer on a model weapon. And have the sensors on the screen detect the movements of the laser beam across their own beams and use that to generate mouse movement-input for the operating system.
That would make aiming a lot more reflexive then a mouse lol.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Days webbings
Ahh, home sweet home.
Well, not exactly but close enough ^_^
Was late getting to work but got off on time, luckily there was a little less to do today then normal. Got 'ambushed' by a Spider above the door, no sign of where the little bugger escaped to but I should probably thank'em.
Hit the shower and a quick shave without the usual delays. When your usually third in line for the bathroom and spend nights workin', and time off work busy. It pays to take advantage of every opportunity for a bath lol.
I spent yesterday taking a day to myself (a rarity sometimes). I was building a prototype in Python with Qt3 bindings then after dinner. I spent the night writing the finished version in C++ with the Qt4 libraries I have installed. I haven't really used C++ much in at least 2 and a half years or so but it wasn't a problem. Qt is arguably the easiest GUI toolkit I've ever seen but I'm only used to the Python bindings to Qt3. So the issue with using the concepts from the prototype to build the project in C++, the biggest problem I had was the slight differences between Qt's bindings to C++ and Python.
Although I wouldn't want to have to do anything useful in assembly language, I think in a way that I can use just about any computer language given enough time. I do rather find working in Python, Perl, and PHP much more comfortable though.
The programs pretty simple, the whole point of it is just to handle a Bourne Shell script based init system to populating my workspace with applications.
I've also considered breaking it down & posting it just for an example in Qt programming.
Well, not exactly but close enough ^_^
Was late getting to work but got off on time, luckily there was a little less to do today then normal. Got 'ambushed' by a Spider above the door, no sign of where the little bugger escaped to but I should probably thank'em.
Hit the shower and a quick shave without the usual delays. When your usually third in line for the bathroom and spend nights workin', and time off work busy. It pays to take advantage of every opportunity for a bath lol.
I spent yesterday taking a day to myself (a rarity sometimes). I was building a prototype in Python with Qt3 bindings then after dinner. I spent the night writing the finished version in C++ with the Qt4 libraries I have installed. I haven't really used C++ much in at least 2 and a half years or so but it wasn't a problem. Qt is arguably the easiest GUI toolkit I've ever seen but I'm only used to the Python bindings to Qt3. So the issue with using the concepts from the prototype to build the project in C++, the biggest problem I had was the slight differences between Qt's bindings to C++ and Python.
Although I wouldn't want to have to do anything useful in assembly language, I think in a way that I can use just about any computer language given enough time. I do rather find working in Python, Perl, and PHP much more comfortable though.
The programs pretty simple, the whole point of it is just to handle a Bourne Shell script based init system to populating my workspace with applications.
I've also considered breaking it down & posting it just for an example in Qt programming.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Been very tired lately... Either workin' a lot or idle as can be for not being able to get work done, pisses me off :\
No one was hungry after this afternoons huge lunch, so there was no official supper. I ended up with a can of cream of mushroom and leftovers lol. Contrary to popular believe around here at times, I actually do know how to make condensed soup ^_^.
With the amount of flibin' salt in those things, I think it would be worth while to do it by hand and skip the can :|, just more costly!
Two things I really need.. Doubt either of them are likely in the immediate future but work also has to get done...
No one was hungry after this afternoons huge lunch, so there was no official supper. I ended up with a can of cream of mushroom and leftovers lol. Contrary to popular believe around here at times, I actually do know how to make condensed soup ^_^.
With the amount of flibin' salt in those things, I think it would be worth while to do it by hand and skip the can :|, just more costly!
Two things I really need.. Doubt either of them are likely in the immediate future but work also has to get done...
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Does Python or PyQt3 have a pox on C++?
This is illogical as I've seen Python get.
Maybe there is a reason for this and I've just got to much of a headache from today to notice it, but WTF man? lol. It's almost as if Python has a pox on running a script in that directory :\
I wanted to test an idea for a dialog quickly, so I started a new python script. Only to have NameError's whenever trying to reference a member of the qt module. So i copied over one of the py-qt3 example programs that came pre-installed and tried that, same barfing results.
Then I tried interactively with python, no go -- changed directories to home and tried both, and they fucking work !!!!
I don't know whether I should laugh out loud or start hex editing maliciously lol.
Terry@dixie$ cd code/C++/src/qsm 0:11 Terry@dixie$ python 0:11 Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Apr 17 2008, 16:34:02) [GCC 3.4.6 [FreeBSD] 20060305] on freebsd6 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> from qt import * >>> QDialog Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> NameError: name 'QDialog' is not defined >>> Terry@dixie$ cd $HOME 0:11 Terry@dixie$ python 0:11 Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Apr 17 2008, 16:34:02) [GCC 3.4.6 [FreeBSD] 20060305] on freebsd6 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> from qt import * >>> QDialog <class 'qt.QDialog'> >>>
Maybe there is a reason for this and I've just got to much of a headache from today to notice it, but WTF man? lol. It's almost as if Python has a pox on running a script in that directory :\
I wanted to test an idea for a dialog quickly, so I started a new python script. Only to have NameError's whenever trying to reference a member of the qt module. So i copied over one of the py-qt3 example programs that came pre-installed and tried that, same barfing results.
Then I tried interactively with python, no go -- changed directories to home and tried both, and they fucking work !!!!
I don't know whether I should laugh out loud or start hex editing maliciously lol.
Another commit to NPM
Well this was a fun one, for the first night in quite awhile I've spent some code-time on one of my own projects instead of [SAS] related business.
After someone on daemonforums pointed me at a few make targets (depends-list, showconfig). I put it on my to do list to refactor NPM to make use of such things.
As it turns out, depends-list is not documented and doesn't seem to work on every port. The included makefile that implements showconfig however, does list a lot of make targets that I can count on (more then the ports manual page), including suitable *-depends-list targets.
NPM's way of handling port build options in the trunk, I've never been very happy with... Because although it works, the whole thing hinges on a method of pulling out the OPTIONS variable from a specified ports Makefile. The code to do it, should we say gives me a queezy feeling when I think about it.
I also had planned on writing a small module to handle calculating a programs dependencies through the ports INDEX file but never finished it. I had gotten as far as processing the index and scratching my head over a couple of the rarely used segments of the file. The various m/.*-depends-.*/ targets solve that problem already, so we're in cake land ;-)
It's much easier to just read the information through a pipe and process it into something manageable. I'm to exhausted atm to keep working on things in a sound frame of mind... Else I would probably be awake for another 3 or 4 hours, passing out around 0700~0800.
Some stuff I would like to do on the next round of commits,
process data received from the pipes while reading them, not after reading it all (not that this is likely to be a noticeable improvement in response time for big jobs)
figure out exceptions to be raised
get it finished
get it tested
get the program using it
test that
pass out again.
After someone on daemonforums pointed me at a few make targets (depends-list, showconfig). I put it on my to do list to refactor NPM to make use of such things.
As it turns out, depends-list is not documented and doesn't seem to work on every port. The included makefile that implements showconfig however, does list a lot of make targets that I can count on (more then the ports manual page), including suitable *-depends-list targets.
NPM's way of handling port build options in the trunk, I've never been very happy with... Because although it works, the whole thing hinges on a method of pulling out the OPTIONS variable from a specified ports Makefile. The code to do it, should we say gives me a queezy feeling when I think about it.
I also had planned on writing a small module to handle calculating a programs dependencies through the ports INDEX file but never finished it. I had gotten as far as processing the index and scratching my head over a couple of the rarely used segments of the file. The various m/.*-depends-.*/ targets solve that problem already, so we're in cake land ;-)
It's much easier to just read the information through a pipe and process it into something manageable. I'm to exhausted atm to keep working on things in a sound frame of mind... Else I would probably be awake for another 3 or 4 hours, passing out around 0700~0800.
Some stuff I would like to do on the next round of commits,
process data received from the pipes while reading them, not after reading it all (not that this is likely to be a noticeable improvement in response time for big jobs)
figure out exceptions to be raised
get it finished
get it tested
get the program using it
test that
pass out again.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Wireless networking options
I'm contemplating *trying* to move my desktop PC to my room... Which means access to the 'net will only by available via wireless. The computer doens't have a wirfi card, just ethernet so that means shopping is involved.
It primarily runs Windows XP for gaming and has space reserved for testing GNU/Linux distros and BSD systems. Being a BSD-aware and manual reading shopper, I always crack open my operating systems manuals and look at what cards are supported by the drivers when I go looking for a product.
Since the only principal markets available to me off the web are Best Buy and Office Depot, those are where I looked online first.
The cards:
NETGEAR - 802.11g PCI Card Model: WG311
Pro's:
Supported by ath drivers.
Same brand and chipset as my PCMCIA card (WG511T)
Con's:
Old (or cheap) product, only supports WEP (which I don't use)
Newer revisions may not be totally compatible with existing drivers (I suspect).
Belkin - Wireless-G USB 2.0 Network Adapter, Model: F5D7050
Pro's:
Version 3 is supported by the rum driver and v2000 by the ral driver.
Con's:
Reviews suggest bad gaming performance due to burst based transmissions
The rum driver is new to FreeBSD 7.0-Release (ported from OpenBSD)
GOD only knows what revision/version you might find at the store...
Hawking Technology - Wireless-G USB 2.0 Network Adapter,
Model: HWUG1 at best buy and at OfficeDepot
Pro's:
Supported by the rum
Removable aerial and possibly good signal strength if you don't have problems with it.
Con's:
The rum driver is new to FreeBSD 7.0-Release (ported from OpenBSD)
May be hard to find (lesser known brand, at least from what I've seen of consumer (non enterprise) products).
Just look at Hawking Technologies website... (ugh)
Linksys Wireless-G 802.11g PCI Adapter, Model WMP54G at Office Depot and Best Buy
Pro's:
Supported by the ral driver.
It's cheap
It's available while it is still on the market
It's the same brand as my router (which is _not_ a plus in my book...)
Con's:
More stores are carrying similar but newer models for Wireless-N and variants of the both (802.11g and 802.11g/n) proprietary speed boosting technology, which of course is unsupported.
It's the same brand as my router (which I don't care much for!)
MISC:
Driver support on OpenBSD and FreeBSD at release levels...
ath == OpenBSD 3.7, FreeBSD 5.2, NetBSD 2.0 (more recent modules don't use a binary blob, at least the OpenBSD drivers that is (-;)
ral == OpenBSD 3.7, FreeBSD 6.0 and may require PCI 2.2 compatible mother boards.
rum == OpenBSD 4.0, FreeBSD 7.0
ural == OpenBSD 3.7, FreeBSD 6.0 and may have issues with communicating transmission speed (OBSD manual is more specific).
All of this is posted for my own reference and anyone else who may find use for it.
It primarily runs Windows XP for gaming and has space reserved for testing GNU/Linux distros and BSD systems. Being a BSD-aware and manual reading shopper, I always crack open my operating systems manuals and look at what cards are supported by the drivers when I go looking for a product.
Since the only principal markets available to me off the web are Best Buy and Office Depot, those are where I looked online first.
The cards:
NETGEAR - 802.11g PCI Card Model: WG311
Pro's:
Supported by ath drivers.
Same brand and chipset as my PCMCIA card (WG511T)
Con's:
Old (or cheap) product, only supports WEP (which I don't use)
Newer revisions may not be totally compatible with existing drivers (I suspect).
Belkin - Wireless-G USB 2.0 Network Adapter, Model: F5D7050
Pro's:
Version 3 is supported by the rum driver and v2000 by the ral driver.
Con's:
Reviews suggest bad gaming performance due to burst based transmissions
The rum driver is new to FreeBSD 7.0-Release (ported from OpenBSD)
GOD only knows what revision/version you might find at the store...
Hawking Technology - Wireless-G USB 2.0 Network Adapter,
Model: HWUG1 at best buy and at OfficeDepot
Pro's:
Supported by the rum
Removable aerial and possibly good signal strength if you don't have problems with it.
Con's:
The rum driver is new to FreeBSD 7.0-Release (ported from OpenBSD)
May be hard to find (lesser known brand, at least from what I've seen of consumer (non enterprise) products).
Just look at Hawking Technologies website... (ugh)
Linksys Wireless-G 802.11g PCI Adapter, Model WMP54G at Office Depot and Best Buy
Pro's:
Supported by the ral driver.
It's cheap
It's available while it is still on the market
It's the same brand as my router (which is _not_ a plus in my book...)
Con's:
More stores are carrying similar but newer models for Wireless-N and variants of the both (802.11g and 802.11g/n) proprietary speed boosting technology, which of course is unsupported.
It's the same brand as my router (which I don't care much for!)
MISC:
Driver support on OpenBSD and FreeBSD at release levels...
ath == OpenBSD 3.7, FreeBSD 5.2, NetBSD 2.0 (more recent modules don't use a binary blob, at least the OpenBSD drivers that is (-;)
ral == OpenBSD 3.7, FreeBSD 6.0 and may require PCI 2.2 compatible mother boards.
rum == OpenBSD 4.0, FreeBSD 7.0
ural == OpenBSD 3.7, FreeBSD 6.0 and may have issues with communicating transmission speed (OBSD manual is more specific).
All of this is posted for my own reference and anyone else who may find use for it.
Converting FreeBSD into PC-BSD
Abstract
This post describes an example of how one can manually convert a FreeBSD installation into a PC-BSD one using the install disk. There are more elegant ways of doing it, such as pulling things from PC-BSDs SVN and compiling only PC-BSD specific components.
Disclaimers and warnings
This was done purely for 'fun' to see if the programs would work reasonably well. Which is why FreeBSD 7.0-Release was used as a base and PC-BSD 1.5.0 as the overlay (which is based on an old build of FreeBSD 6.3). I do not recommend, endorse, or even suggest actually doing something like this beyond exploratory or playful thoughts at heart !!!
If anyone actually tries this, your on your own.
If someone actually tries this they should probably use a PC-BSD 1.5.1 disk build, the files are newer.
Installing the PC-BSD v1.5.0-v1.5.1 update will install FreeBSD 6.3 files and may break your system -- note that I didn't enable the updater for my user account during this process.
Now that you are warned...
My test partition is reserved fro testing various alpha/beta/rc releases of operating systems I wish to test. So I wiped it clean and set out to install a basic working FreeBSD system.
I Installed FreeBSD 7.0-Release via CD-ROM, using the express option, auto
partitioning to save time, X-Developer dist set, and configured the system
lightly (set root pw, network services etc).
You want the X.org and related drivers from the disk, so they match your release level -- you also want source code for later to build a custom kernel (optional)
Booted the system and logged in as root, one vtty for work and one for logging my notes in vim over ssh.
Then began converting the system to a FreeBSD-PC-BSD hybrid. Since the FreeBSD auto mode for partitioning the slice only gave me a 512mb / and 512mb /tmp, I created a /usr/work directory to use.
NOTE:
actual PC-BSD systems require several gigs of space for / to ensure safe updates and this is noted during previous upgrade notes. My guess after reading some of the 1.4/1.5 scripts is the developers have 'yet' to figure out how to use mount -a for mounting the needed file systems before extracting files and reserved storage places with the default partitioning scheme
pkg_add -r lzma && rehash # to unpack pc-bsd files
mount -t cd9690 /dev/acd0 /mnt # mount pc-bsd disk 1
mkdir -m 0700 /usr/work
lzma d /mnt/PCBSD.tar.lzma /usr/work/PCBSD.tar
...
# lzma has fast decompression speeds but
# this is a ~451mb lzma file being
# unpacked into a 1.9gb tar file!
tar -C / -kpf /usr/work/PCBSD.tar # extract files without overwrite
cp /etc/rc.conf /etc/rc.conf.local # fix rc.conf
tar -C /tmp -f /usr/work/PCBSD.tar -px './etc'
cp /tmp/etc/rc.conf /etc/rc.conf
cp /tmp/etc/devfs.conf /etc/devfs.conf # modified in pc-bsd
vi /etc/ttys # start x on boot up
... # note the ttyvNum is arbitrary
#ttyv8 "/usr/local/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm off secure
ttyv8 "/PCBSD/bin/pdm" xterm on secure
...
X -configure && mv /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
#
# create users and groups that come with PC-BSD 1.5.0 but not FreeBSD
# 7.0-Release. Numerical values for -u userid and -g groupid are taken from
# viewing a unified diff of the group files.
#
pw groupadd -n haldaemon -g 560
pw groupadd -n cups -g 193
pw groupadd -n cyrus -g 60
pw useradd -n haldaemon -u 560 -g 560 -L daemon -d /nonexistent \
-s /usr/sbin/nologin
pw useradd -n cups -u 193 -g 193 -L daemon -d /nonexistent -s /usr/sbin/nologin
pw useradd -n cyrus -u 60 -g 60 -L daemon -d /nonexistent -s /usr/sbin/nologin
#
# add my own user with the bash shell as a test (because it. Note that I typically set
# user/group id numbers by year of birth.
#
pw groupadd -n Terry -g 1988
pw useradd -n Terry -u 1988 -L default -m -s bash -g Terry \
-G wheel,operator
passwd Terry
...
#
# now build a custom kernel merging GENERIC with /PCBSD/conf/PCBSD.i386
# I find Micro GNU Emacs (mg) to be both light and effective for this task.
# -- normally I would use vimdiff
#
pkg_add -r mg && rehash # if using mg !
cat > ~/.mg
auto-fill-mode
set-fill-column 78
global-set-key "\^x\^f" find-file
global-set-key "\^h" delete-backward-char
set-default-mode blink
^D # end of ~/.mg
diff -u /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC /PCBSD/conf/PCBSD.i386 > /tmp/kern.diff
cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf
mg KAI
... # kernel config attached at EOF
# used GENERIC and /tmp/kern.diff to
# write the file if needed.
cd /usr/src # compile & install kernel
make -j12 buildkernel KERNCONF=KAI
... # roughly 10 minutes later..
make -j12 installkernel KERNCONF=KAI
...
umount /mnt && cdcontrol -f /dev/acd0 eject
reboot # let's rock it and roll on to KDE
On reboot, I was greeted with KDM, PC-BSDs login theme, and a clean startup of KDE (no error message popups). I was able to install and use the Firefox PBI from PBIDir without problems. But as one can see in the screen shots, there are sound system related core dumps
I was also interested to see that there is now a 'snd_emu10kx' driver added in FreeBSD 7.0-Release which supports my card. So I guess I won't have to manually compile the 'outdated, unmaintained, etc' audio/emu10kx port to get working sound, the manual page seems to suggest it is the same driver more or less. I only had to add an entry to my loader.conf file to get it loaded before PC-BSD sound detection system, just like audio/emu10kx from ports it won't work (for me) if kldload'ed later on.
I found that although everything I tested was working fine, audio and video related apps were dumping core (mplayer at start, kaffeine during playback). So I did a pkg_delete on kaffeine and kaffeine-mozilla and reinstalled from packages and soon was blasting MP3's from a FAT32 partition ;-)
MPlayer needs to be recompiled as expected, The KDE sound system will likely need that to but otherwise I've observed no real breakages. Not that I've taken the time to test every single program!
Personal Opinions
If like me, your primary reason for using PC-BSD is a quick way of grabbing KDE -- you would be better off installing PC-BSD! As far as setting up a working desktop system, one can do that easy through FreeBSD. If one doesn't want to go into configuration details for 'extra's like PF or X11 using PC-BSD or DesktopBSD is a better idea anyway.
If all you want is PBI, export, compile, and install the necessary files from PC-BSDs SVN repository.
Kernel Configuration: KAI
Note to SATA hard drives out there, the ATA_STATIC_ID option effects device numbering. FreeBSD GENERIC kernel configuration uses it and detects my SATA drive as 'ad4', PC_BSD kernel configuration has it turned off and detects my drive as 'ad0' -- I only have one SATA II hard drive installed.
Changing the ATA_STATIC_ID kernel option means you will havve to make sure /etc/fstab is in working shape unless you want to see a mount root prompt.
#
# Custom FreeBSD 7.0 kernel based on PC-BSD 1.5 Kernel config for FreeBSD 6.3
#
cpu I686_CPU
ident KAI
#options SCHED_$BSD # 4BSD scheduler
options SCHED_ULE # ULE scheduler ;-)
options PREEMPTION # ENABLE KERNEL THREAD PREEMPTION
options INET # INTERNETWORKING
options INET6 # IPV6 COMMUNICATIONS PROTOCOLS
options SCTP # STREAM CONTROL TRANSMISSION PROTOCOL
options FFS # BERKELEY FAST FILESYSTEM
options SOFTUPDATES # ENABLE FFS SOFT UPDATES SUPPORT
options UFS_ACL # SUPPORT FOR ACCESS CONTROL LISTS
options UFS_DIRHASH # IMPROVE PERFORMANCE ON BIG DIRECTORIES
options UFS_GJOURNAL # ENABLE GJOURNAL-BASED UFS JOURNALING
options MD_ROOT # MD IS A POTENTIAL ROOT device
options NFSCLIENT # NETWORK FILESYSTEM CLIENT
options NFSSERVER # NETWORK FILESYSTEM SERVER
options NFS_ROOT # NFS USABLE AS /, REQUIRES NFSCLIENT
options MSDOSFS # MSDOS FILESYSTEM
options CD9660 # ISO 9660 FILESYSTEM
options PROCFS # PROCESS FILESYSTEM (REQUIRES PSEUDOFS)
options PSEUDOFS # PSEUDO-FILESYSTEM FRAMEWORK
options GEOM_PART_GPT # GUID PARTITION TABLES.
options GEOM_LABEL # PROVIDES LABELIZATION
options COMPAT_43TTY # BSD 4.3 TTY COMPAT [KEEP THIS!]
options COMPAT_FREEBSD4 # COMPATIBLE WITH FREEBSD4
options COMPAT_FREEBSD5 # COMPATIBLE WITH FREEBSD5
options COMPAT_FREEBSD6 # COMPATIBLE WITH FREEBSD6
options SCSI_DELAY=5000 # DELAY (IN MS) BEFORE PROBING SCSI
options KTRACE # KTRACE(1) SUPPORT
options SYSVSHM # SYSV-STYLE SHARED MEMORY
options SYSVMSG # SYSV-STYLE MESSAGE QUEUES
options SYSVSEM # SYSV-STYLE SEMAPHORES
options _KPOSIX_PRIORITY_SCHEDULING # POSIX P1003_1B REAL-TIME EXTENSIONS
options KBD_INSTALL_CDEV # INSTALL A CDEV ENTRY IN /DEV
options ADAPTIVE_GIANT # GIANT MUTEX IS ADAPTIVE.
options STOP_NMI # STOP CPUS USING NMI INSTEAD OF IPI
options AUDIT # SECURITY EVENT AUDITING
# TO MAKE AN SMP KERNEL, THE NEXT TWO LINES ARE NEEDED
options SMP # SYMMETRIC MULTIPROCESSOR KERNEL
device apic # I/O APIC
# CPU FREQUENCY CONTROL
device cpufreq
# BUS SUPPORT.
device eisa
device pci
# FLOPPY DRIVES
device fdc
# ATA AND ATAPI deviceS
device ata
device atadisk # ATA DISK DRIVES
device ataraid # ATA RAID DRIVES
device atapicd # ATAPI CDROM DRIVES
device atapifd # ATAPI FLOPPY DRIVES
device atapist # ATAPI TAPE DRIVES
options ATA_STATIC_ID # STATIC device NUMBERING
device atapicam # Atapi CAM support
# SCSI CONTROLLERS
device ahb # EISA AHA1742 FAMILY
device ahc # AHA2940 AND ONBOARD AIC7XXX deviceS
options AHC_REG_PRETTY_PRINT # PRINT REGISTER BITFIELDS IN DEBUG
# OUTPUT. ADDS ~128K TO DRIVER.
device ahd # AHA39320/29320 AND ONBOARD AIC79XX deviceS
options AHD_REG_PRETTY_PRINT # PRINT REGISTER BITFIELDS IN DEBUG
# OUTPUT. ADDS ~215K TO DRIVER.
device amd # AMD 53C974 (TEKRAM DC-390(T))
device isp # QLOGIC FAMILY
#device ispfw # FIRMWARE FOR QLOGIC HBAS- NORMALLY A MODULE
device mpt # LSI-LOGIC MPT-FUSION
#device ncr # NCR/SYMBIOS LOGIC
device sym # NCR/SYMBIOS LOGIC (NEWER CHIPSETS + THOSE OF `NCR')
device trm # TEKRAM DC395U/UW/F DC315U ADAPTERS
device adv # ADVANSYS SCSI ADAPTERS
device adw # ADVANSYS WIDE SCSI ADAPTERS
device aha # ADAPTEC 154X SCSI ADAPTERS
device aic # ADAPTEC 15[012]X SCSI ADAPTERS, AIC-6[23]60.
device bt # BUSLOGIC/MYLEX MULTIMASTER SCSI ADAPTERS
device ncv # NCR 53C500
device nsp # WORKBIT NINJA SCSI-3
device stg # TMC 18C30/18C50
# SCSI PERIPHERALS
device scbus # SCSI BUS (REQUIRED FOR SCSI)
device ch # SCSI MEDIA CHANGERS
device da # DIRECT ACCESS (DISKS)
device sa # SEQUENTIAL ACCESS (TAPE ETC)
device cd # CD
device pass # PASSTHROUGH device (DIRECT SCSI ACCESS)
device ses # SCSI ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (AND SAF-TE)
# RAID CONTROLLERS INTERFACED TO THE SCSI SUBSYSTEM
device amr # AMI MEGARAID
device arcmsr # ARECA SATA II RAID
device asr # DPT SMARTRAID V, VI AND ADAPTEC SCSI RAID
device ciss # COMPAQ SMART RAID 5*
device dpt # DPT SMARTCACHE III, IV - SEE NOTES FOR options
device hptmv # HIGHPOINT ROCKETRAID 182X
device hptrr # HIGHPOINT ROCKETRAID 17XX, 22XX, 23XX, 25XX
device iir # INTEL INTEGRATED RAID
device ips # IBM (ADAPTEC) SERVERAID
device mly # MYLEX ACCELERAID/EXTREMERAID
device twa # 3WARE 9000 SERIES PATA/SATA RAID
# RAID CONTROLLERS
device aac # ADAPTEC FSA RAID
device aacp # SCSI PASSTHROUGH FOR AAC (REQUIRES CAM)
device ida # COMPAQ SMART RAID
device mfi # LSI MEGARAID SAS
device mlx # MYLEX DAC960 FAMILY
device pst # PROMISE SUPERTRAK SX6000
device twe # 3WARE ATA RAID
# ATKBDC0 CONTROLS BOTH THE KEYBOARD AND THE PS/2 MOUSE
device atkbdc # AT KEYBOARD CONTROLLER
device atkbd # AT KEYBOARD
device psm # PS/2 MOUSE
device vga # VGA VIDEO CARD DRIVER
device splash # SPLASH SCREEN AND SCREEN SAVER SUPPORT
# SYSCONS IS THE DEFAULT CONSOLE DRIVER, RESEMBLING AN SCO CONSOLE
device sc
device agp # SUPPORT SEVERAL AGP CHIPSETS
# POWER MANAGEMENT SUPPORT (SEE NOTES FOR MORE options)
#device apm
# ADD SUSPEND/RESUME SUPPORT FOR THE I8254.
device pmtimer
# PCCARD (PCMCIA) SUPPORT
# PCMCIA AND CARDBUS BRIDGE SUPPORT
device cbb # CARDBUS (YENTA) BRIDGE
device pccard # PC CARD (16-BIT) BUS
device cardbus # CARDBUS (32-BIT) BUS
# SERIAL (COM) PORTS
device sio # 8250, 16[45]50 BASED SERIAL PORTS
device uart # GENERIC UART DRIVER
# PARALLEL PORT
device ppc
device ppbus # PARALLEL PORT BUS (REQUIRED)
device lpt # PRINTER
device plip # TCP/IP OVER PARALLEL
device ppi # PARALLEL PORT INTERFACE device
#device vpo # REQUIRES SCBUS AND DA
# IF YOU'VE GOT A "DUMB" SERIAL OR PARALLEL PCI CARD THAT IS
# SUPPORTED BY THE PUC(4) GLUE DRIVER, UNCOMMENT THE FOLLOWING
# LINE TO ENABLE IT (CONNECTS TO SIO, UART AND/OR PPC DRIVERS):
#device puc
# PCI ETHERNET NICS.
device de # DEC/INTEL DC21X4X (``TULIP'')
device em # INTEL PRO/1000 ADAPTER GIGABIT ETHERNET CARD
device ixgb # INTEL PRO/10GBE ETHERNET CARD
device le # AMD AM7900 LANCE AND AM79C9XX PCNET
device txp # 3COM 3CR990 (``TYPHOON'')
device vx # 3COM 3C590, 3C595 (``VORTEX'')
# PCI ETHERNET NICS THAT USE THE COMMON MII BUS CONTROLLER CODE.
# NOTE: BE SURE TO KEEP THE 'device MIIBUS' LINE IN ORDER TO USE THESE NICS!
device miibus # MII BUS SUPPORT
device bce # BROADCOM BCM5706/BCM5708 GIGABIT ETHERNET
device bfe # BROADCOM BCM440X 10/100 ETHERNET
device bge # BROADCOM BCM570XX GIGABIT ETHERNET
device dc # DEC/INTEL 21143 AND VARIOUS WORKALIKES
device fxp # INTEL ETHEREXPRESS PRO/100B (82557, 82558)
device lge # LEVEL 1 LXT1001 GIGABIT ETHERNET
device msk # MARVELL/SYSKONNECT YUKON II GIGABIT ETHERNET
device nfe # NVIDIA NFORCE MCP ON-BOARD ETHERNET
device nge # NATSEMI DP83820 GIGABIT ETHERNET
#device nve # NVIDIA NFORCE MCP ON-BOARD ETHERNET NETWORKING
device pcn # AMD AM79C97X PCI 10/100 (PRECEDENCE OVER 'LE')
device re # REALTEK 8139C+/8169/8169S/8110S
device rl # REALTEK 8129/8139
device sf # ADAPTEC AIC-6915 (``STARFIRE'')
device sis # SILICON INTEGRATED SYSTEMS SIS 900/SIS 7016
device sk # SYSKONNECT SK-984X & SK-982X GIGABIT ETHERNET
device ste # SUNDANCE ST201 (D-LINK DFE-550TX)
device stge # SUNDANCE/TAMARACK TC9021 GIGABIT ETHERNET
device ti # ALTEON NETWORKS TIGON I/II GIGABIT ETHERNET
device tl # TEXAS INSTRUMENTS THUNDERLAN
device tx # SMC ETHERPOWER II (83C170 ``EPIC'')
device vge # VIA VT612X GIGABIT ETHERNET
device vr # VIA RHINE, RHINE II
device wb # WINBOND W89C840F
device xl # 3COM 3C90X (``BOOMERANG'', ``CYCLONE'')
# ISA ETHERNET NICS. PCCARD NICS INCLUDED.
device cs # CRYSTAL SEMICONDUCTOR CS89X0 NIC
# 'device ED' REQUIRES 'device MIIBUS'
device ed # NE[12]000, SMC ULTRA, 3C503, DS8390 CARDS
device ex # INTEL ETHEREXPRESS PRO/10 AND PRO/10+
device ep # ETHERLINK III BASED CARDS
device fe # FUJITSU MB8696X BASED CARDS
device ie # ETHEREXPRESS 8/16, 3C507, STARLAN 10 ETC.
device sn # SMC'S 9000 SERIES OF ETHERNET CHIPS
device xe # XIRCOM PCCARD ETHERNET
# WIRELESS NIC CARDS
device wlan # 802.11 SUPPORT
device wlan_wep # 802.11 WEP SUPPORT
device wlan_ccmp # 802.11 CCMP SUPPORT
device wlan_tkip # 802.11 TKIP SUPPORT
device wlan_amrr # AMRR TRANSMIT RATE CONTROL ALGORITHM
device wlan_scan_ap # 802.11 AP MODE SCANNING
device wlan_scan_sta # 802.11 STA MODE SCANNING
device an # AIRONET 4500/4800 802.11 WIRELESS NICS.
device ath # ATHEROS PCI/CARDBUS NIC'S
device ath_hal # ATHEROS HAL (HARDWARE ACCESS LAYER)
device ath_rate_sample # SAMPLERATE TX RATE CONTROL FOR ATH
device awi # BAYSTACK 660 AND OTHERS
device ral # RALINK TECHNOLOGY RT2500 WIRELESS NICS.
device wi # WAVELAN/INTERSIL/SYMBOL 802.11 WIRELESS NICS.
#device wl # OLDER NON 802.11 WAVELAN WIRELESS NIC.
# PSEUDO deviceS.
device loop # NETWORK LOOPBACK
device random # ENTROPY device
device ether # ETHERNET SUPPORT
device sl # KERNEL SLIP
device ppp # KERNEL PPP
device tun # PACKET TUNNEL.
device pty # PSEUDO-TTYS (TELNET ETC)
device md # MEMORY "DISKS"
device gif # IPV6 AND IPV4 TUNNELING
device faith # IPV6-TO-IPV4 RELAYING (TRANSLATION)
device firmware # FIRMWARE ASSIST MODULE
# THE `BPF' device ENABLES THE BERKELEY PACKET FILTER.
# BE AWARE OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF ENABLING THIS!
# NOTE THAT 'BPF' IS REQUIRED FOR DHCP.
device bpf # BERKELEY PACKET FILTER
# USB SUPPORT
device uhci # UHCI PCI->USB INTERFACE
device ohci # OHCI PCI->USB INTERFACE
device ehci # EHCI PCI->USB INTERFACE (USB 2.0)
device usb # USB BUS (REQUIRED)
#device udbp # USB DOUBLE BULK PIPE deviceS
device ugen # GENERIC
device uhid # "HUMAN INTERFACE deviceS"
device ukbd # KEYBOARD
device ulpt # PRINTER
device umass # DISKS/MASS STORAGE - REQUIRES SCBUS AND DA
device ums # MOUSE
device ural # RALINK TECHNOLOGY RT2500USB WIRELESS NICS
device rum # RALINK TECHNOLOGY RT2501USB WIRELESS NICS
device urio # DIAMOND RIO 500 MP3 PLAYER
device uscanner # SCANNERS
# USB ETHERNET, REQUIRES MIIBUS
device aue # ADMTEK USB ETHERNET
device axe # ASIX ELECTRONICS USB ETHERNET
device cdce # GENERIC USB OVER ETHERNET
device cue # CATC USB ETHERNET
device kue # KAWASAKI LSI USB ETHERNET
device rue # REALTEK RTL8150 USB ETHERNET
# FIREWIRE SUPPORT
device firewire # FIREWIRE BUS CODE
device sbp # SCSI OVER FIREWIRE (REQUIRES SCBUS AND DA)
device fwe # ETHERNET OVER FIREWIRE (NON-STANDARD!)
device fwip # IP OVER FIREWIRE (RFC 2734,3146)
device dcons # DUMB CONSOLE DRIVER
device dcons_crom # CONFIGURATION ROM FOR DCONS
#
# from PC-BSD conf
#
options LIBICONV
options LIBMCHAIN
options CD9660_ICONV
options MSDOSFS_ICONV
options NTFS
options NTFS_ICONV
options UDF
options UDF_ICONV
options GEOM_UZIP # read only compressed disks
# wifi
device wlan
device wlan_wep
device wlan_ccmp
device wlan_tkip
device an
device ath
device ath_hal
device ath_rate_sample
device awi
device ral
device wi
device iwi
device ipw
device firmware
options DEVICE_POLLING
device pf
device pflog
device pfsync
options ALTQ
options ALTQ_CBQ
options ALTQ_RED
options ALTQ_RIO
options ALTQ_HFSC
options ALTQ_CDNR
options ALTQ_PRIQ
options ALTQ_NOPCC
Friday, June 13, 2008
Family Memories
Hmm, a rare surprise in the mail today. My Aunt sent me some family photo's, mostly of when my Father was younger and a couple of when I was little. My Mother also gave me a few more photo albums, ones that belonged to my Dad.
Spent some time tonight looking through them, basically covering 1946 through 1963 with a couple gaps in between. One thing that really stuck out, a picture of my Dad about 4 years old sitting on their front step with my Aunt. He had his leg crossed in just the same way that I usually have mine crossed lol. Guess it goes back further then I thought >_>
As fate would have it, I know a lot more about my Mothers side of the family then my Fathers... But his albums are also a bit neater, well annotated, I think someday it would be nice to go through them with my Aunt and see what she can remember of some of their vacations and stuff. One thing that I found out when looking through the photos; that I never knew before, my Dad was in the boy scouts when he was a kid.
I was also looking through a book from when he was doing the recruit training/etc in 1963, of course I looked through the company photographs to find him (y). Some of the pictures my Aunt sent me were of him in his summer whites, most of the ones we have are in the winter blues. I think the USN is dealing away with those now're days, oh well :\. In side the pages I also found a greyhound envelope with bus tickets from the time and a few photo's of aircraft.
I know he hated the Navy more or less, he was supposed to be stationed in Texas close to home but wound up in Florida -- someone out of state got Fort Hood, and then later shipped off to Midway when life was going a bit better. Talk about getting the short end of the stick lol. But then again, if it wasn't for that I probably would never have been born ~20 years later ^_^
I'm a somewhat sentimental kinda guy, not exactly a big person on photo albums but it's good to be reminded every now and then of where you come from. It's sort of like looking at a small picture into another time, another place. Some of the older photo's are quite faded but I guess 60 years or so will do that to a photograph. But all in all most of them were in pretty good shape, quite a pleasant stroll you could say.
One thing that was a bit odd, one of the Christmas photos showed my Dad getting a tub of "American Plastic Bricks", they look like a cross between something simpler I used to play with as a boy when I was a few years younger and the LEGO bricks so ubiquitous with much of my generation. I also sighed at the sight of my Dad and Aunt sitting around the tree with a new record player -- someone was telling me the other day that they were looking for an MP3 Player >_>.
I was born in '89 and my memory goes about as far back as 1990~1991 and I don't think I've really seen a record player in years. Heh, now this makes me feel old myself... When I was a lad we had Walkman and similar products with your choice of ear buds or or supra-aural headphones -- now they are selling WIRELESS HEADPHONES !!! Not to mention that Compact Disks (CDs) and now more modern iPods and flash based devices are becoming common... The Compact Cassettes of my day are probably long dead and buried by now.
I wonder what my Dad would think of this new fan dangled technology, personally I think I would stick with the record player if it wasn't for computers.
One of these days I really would like to get everything scanned, organized, and tagged on the computer. Because unlike a photograph, a file doesn't fade out so easy. If I ever have kids, I know I would like to be able to show them about their ancestors. My ~/Pictures folder is only ~255mb so adding about a dozen photo albums can't hurt that much, can it?
Spent some time tonight looking through them, basically covering 1946 through 1963 with a couple gaps in between. One thing that really stuck out, a picture of my Dad about 4 years old sitting on their front step with my Aunt. He had his leg crossed in just the same way that I usually have mine crossed lol. Guess it goes back further then I thought >_>
As fate would have it, I know a lot more about my Mothers side of the family then my Fathers... But his albums are also a bit neater, well annotated, I think someday it would be nice to go through them with my Aunt and see what she can remember of some of their vacations and stuff. One thing that I found out when looking through the photos; that I never knew before, my Dad was in the boy scouts when he was a kid.
I was also looking through a book from when he was doing the recruit training/etc in 1963, of course I looked through the company photographs to find him (y). Some of the pictures my Aunt sent me were of him in his summer whites, most of the ones we have are in the winter blues. I think the USN is dealing away with those now're days, oh well :\. In side the pages I also found a greyhound envelope with bus tickets from the time and a few photo's of aircraft.
I know he hated the Navy more or less, he was supposed to be stationed in Texas close to home but wound up in Florida -- someone out of state got Fort Hood, and then later shipped off to Midway when life was going a bit better. Talk about getting the short end of the stick lol. But then again, if it wasn't for that I probably would never have been born ~20 years later ^_^
I'm a somewhat sentimental kinda guy, not exactly a big person on photo albums but it's good to be reminded every now and then of where you come from. It's sort of like looking at a small picture into another time, another place. Some of the older photo's are quite faded but I guess 60 years or so will do that to a photograph. But all in all most of them were in pretty good shape, quite a pleasant stroll you could say.
One thing that was a bit odd, one of the Christmas photos showed my Dad getting a tub of "American Plastic Bricks", they look like a cross between something simpler I used to play with as a boy when I was a few years younger and the LEGO bricks so ubiquitous with much of my generation. I also sighed at the sight of my Dad and Aunt sitting around the tree with a new record player -- someone was telling me the other day that they were looking for an MP3 Player >_>.
I was born in '89 and my memory goes about as far back as 1990~1991 and I don't think I've really seen a record player in years. Heh, now this makes me feel old myself... When I was a lad we had Walkman and similar products with your choice of ear buds or or supra-aural headphones -- now they are selling WIRELESS HEADPHONES !!! Not to mention that Compact Disks (CDs) and now more modern iPods and flash based devices are becoming common... The Compact Cassettes of my day are probably long dead and buried by now.
I wonder what my Dad would think of this new fan dangled technology, personally I think I would stick with the record player if it wasn't for computers.
One of these days I really would like to get everything scanned, organized, and tagged on the computer. Because unlike a photograph, a file doesn't fade out so easy. If I ever have kids, I know I would like to be able to show them about their ancestors. My ~/Pictures folder is only ~255mb so adding about a dozen photo albums can't hurt that much, can it?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
DI Planning Phase
Just finished my notes, I figure I can make the encrypted file available to the other NCOs to save me time reiterating it vocally. It's mostly an outline of what ground I'll have to be covering as a drill instructor.
My planned format is much like that my greatest teachers used for me, Rand, Wiz, and Relish.
I know my work on Tuesdays now (formally Mondays job) is almost a total washout when it comes to computer time. I kind of would like to get at least 3 or 4 days of the week going for training an hour or 2 per if possible. Time issues will tell the tail I guess. One thing I like about most of my work, I'm usually home some time in the local afternoon which generally works well.
I really prefer Zulu time but I kinda like my time zone. It balances out to an interesting inter-mix of times when syncing with other countries, I usually get to see people in several very different time zones during my online time lol.
The smaller portions of my training phase need to be taken day by day more so. I like what I have so far, a fairly ironed out wave of it but still a lot of breathing room to swing with whatever I end up. One thing I need to do is get this TeX file setup for printing so I don't crash from all the alt+tabing lol.
I always felt [SAS]_Cpl_Spidey01 had the best ring to it in my time thus far, although I admit SSM/RSM/WO1 has enabled me to do a lot more then I otherwise would've been able to... but it's the Corporals that fill many of my favorite tasks in [SAS].
Good to have my butt back on the virtual training grounds doing training!
My planned format is much like that my greatest teachers used for me, Rand, Wiz, and Relish.
I know my work on Tuesdays now (formally Mondays job) is almost a total washout when it comes to computer time. I kind of would like to get at least 3 or 4 days of the week going for training an hour or 2 per if possible. Time issues will tell the tail I guess. One thing I like about most of my work, I'm usually home some time in the local afternoon which generally works well.
I really prefer Zulu time but I kinda like my time zone. It balances out to an interesting inter-mix of times when syncing with other countries, I usually get to see people in several very different time zones during my online time lol.
The smaller portions of my training phase need to be taken day by day more so. I like what I have so far, a fairly ironed out wave of it but still a lot of breathing room to swing with whatever I end up. One thing I need to do is get this TeX file setup for printing so I don't crash from all the alt+tabing lol.
I always felt [SAS]_Cpl_Spidey01 had the best ring to it in my time thus far, although I admit SSM/RSM/WO1 has enabled me to do a lot more then I otherwise would've been able to... but it's the Corporals that fill many of my favorite tasks in [SAS].
Good to have my butt back on the virtual training grounds doing training!
Monday, June 9, 2008
days notes
Ahhh... A busy, stressful, but reasonably productive day I guess...
TG#3 problem should be el'fixo.
The RSM finally posted the reply to my volunteering to the be our new Recruits drill instructor.
Tonight I need to take some time out and finish prep work. It's been a good while since I've focused on this sort of thing, having never filled the position in the past. I'm a wee bit apprehensive but looking forward to it a lot.
Back in my day, we didn't have such an arrangement and by the time we did: I was a bit to highly placed to get a chance :\. Oh well, it's about time I guess lol. I'm lucky though, I've got a good recruit to work with so the biggest problem will probably be not boring him to death during training >_>.
As an NCO and SNCO on the team I have usually planned out my training sessions in advance, complete with a lesson plan. One thing I kinda liked about being an RSM/SSM is the chance to do more 'off topic' trainings, covering advanced stuff and things that we don't train as frequently on.
For Drill Instructor, I want to continue to apply the level of expertise but not in quite the same way. I figure, for this since it's more of a one to one / two to one approach... And I'm very much used to training in groups, I think I'll try and follow the format that thought my generation the techniques of the trade.
I'm used to doing trainings in a more structured class. I usually would line it up so I could have 2 or 3 recruits around and bring in a few promising candidates when I could. Walk us through it, refine it, and where possible a lot some time for practicing it without the instructors interventions. Most times I'd be dealing with 3 to 7 people and if ever a stroke up luck, someone to back me up lol.
Me, well I was trained quite a bit differently hehe ;-)
TG#3 problem should be el'fixo.
The RSM finally posted the reply to my volunteering to the be our new Recruits drill instructor.
Tonight I need to take some time out and finish prep work. It's been a good while since I've focused on this sort of thing, having never filled the position in the past. I'm a wee bit apprehensive but looking forward to it a lot.
Back in my day, we didn't have such an arrangement and by the time we did: I was a bit to highly placed to get a chance :\. Oh well, it's about time I guess lol. I'm lucky though, I've got a good recruit to work with so the biggest problem will probably be not boring him to death during training >_>.
As an NCO and SNCO on the team I have usually planned out my training sessions in advance, complete with a lesson plan. One thing I kinda liked about being an RSM/SSM is the chance to do more 'off topic' trainings, covering advanced stuff and things that we don't train as frequently on.
For Drill Instructor, I want to continue to apply the level of expertise but not in quite the same way. I figure, for this since it's more of a one to one / two to one approach... And I'm very much used to training in groups, I think I'll try and follow the format that thought my generation the techniques of the trade.
I'm used to doing trainings in a more structured class. I usually would line it up so I could have 2 or 3 recruits around and bring in a few promising candidates when I could. Walk us through it, refine it, and where possible a lot some time for practicing it without the instructors interventions. Most times I'd be dealing with 3 to 7 people and if ever a stroke up luck, someone to back me up lol.
Me, well I was trained quite a bit differently hehe ;-)
Sunday, June 8, 2008
quick app
Well, it's more of a chewing gum solution then a perfect fix... But I think I've got a small app to deal with the TG#3 problem. As soon as it is deployed it'll kick start her whenever she goes offline.
At least, assuming that it follows a single common assumption but the game server should. At least one of the development teams that worked on SWAT4/SWAT4:TSS seem to have had some background in C++ for better or worse.
I don't expect any problems though, it's not like it's a Ubi product haha. Oh man, Raven Shield is some crazy shit. I don't know if it's just an Unreal 2.x thing, the people Ubi get to write this stuff, or the rushed development but that's one game I'd say has "ghosts in the machine". It's like, you could install the same game, into identical systems, do the same exact things to them. And then watch both system develop their own unique quirks and anomalies.
It's like, no two installs of RvS are the same (especially servers) even through it's the same bloody program!
The little funkieness yesterday that we had with the Rvs servers, ain't even supposed to be possible rofl. But like most Windows crap, restart it and it'll fix most problems until the next thing pops up :\
DOS drools, NT sucks, but UNIX rules forever,
At least, assuming that it follows a single common assumption but the game server should. At least one of the development teams that worked on SWAT4/SWAT4:TSS seem to have had some background in C++ for better or worse.
I don't expect any problems though, it's not like it's a Ubi product haha. Oh man, Raven Shield is some crazy shit. I don't know if it's just an Unreal 2.x thing, the people Ubi get to write this stuff, or the rushed development but that's one game I'd say has "ghosts in the machine". It's like, you could install the same game, into identical systems, do the same exact things to them. And then watch both system develop their own unique quirks and anomalies.
It's like, no two installs of RvS are the same (especially servers) even through it's the same bloody program!
The little funkieness yesterday that we had with the Rvs servers, ain't even supposed to be possible rofl. But like most Windows crap, restart it and it'll fix most problems until the next thing pops up :\
DOS drools, NT sucks, but UNIX rules forever,
Eureka!
A light bulb moment as I wake up:
create new tables within a private namespace
use old tables to populate them with data
use new tables in reworking the mighty page
when complete, port other scripts to new db tables
when that is done, delete old tables, rename new tables ubto the production name space.
And the have a root beer ;-)
create new tables within a private namespace
use old tables to populate them with data
use new tables in reworking the mighty page
when complete, port other scripts to new db tables
when that is done, delete old tables, rename new tables ubto the production name space.
And the have a root beer ;-)
Been working on rewriting the mighty page... (ugh)
Personally, I think the entire website would be a hell of a lot faster if we reorganized the entire private database into some thing more consistent, stripped out some of the (abused) use of <table> tags, and moved more presentation issues into per-unit style sheets... But thanks to our original designer(s), whoever he/she/they may be coupled with my family, that would take months instead of hours to do without breaking everything.
Although I've always felt database normalization eventually just "goes to far" when done well, I'm beginning to think it is a pretty dang good idea just for the sake of flexibility.
The big problem is when you have code in use, that's so old no body remembers who the heck wrote it, and whoever wrote it assumed they were the GOD of a database that would never change it's structure in the slightest, less the entire thing need fixing in every sub system.
And I'm the one without the college education here? WTF.
Working on the mighty page is a bit prickly since, we've got disorganized data to suck in, organize into some thing we can actually use, iteratively display the data, and sadly I'm not interested in leaving code behind that'll break if the next guy so much as sneezes at it loool.
Well, at lest all of the _big_ problems were fixed two weeks ago...
Personally, I think the entire website would be a hell of a lot faster if we reorganized the entire private database into some thing more consistent, stripped out some of the (abused) use of <table> tags, and moved more presentation issues into per-unit style sheets... But thanks to our original designer(s), whoever he/she/they may be coupled with my family, that would take months instead of hours to do without breaking everything.
Although I've always felt database normalization eventually just "goes to far" when done well, I'm beginning to think it is a pretty dang good idea just for the sake of flexibility.
The big problem is when you have code in use, that's so old no body remembers who the heck wrote it, and whoever wrote it assumed they were the GOD of a database that would never change it's structure in the slightest, less the entire thing need fixing in every sub system.
And I'm the one without the college education here? WTF.
Working on the mighty page is a bit prickly since, we've got disorganized data to suck in, organize into some thing we can actually use, iteratively display the data, and sadly I'm not interested in leaving code behind that'll break if the next guy so much as sneezes at it loool.
Well, at lest all of the _big_ problems were fixed two weeks ago...
Saturday, June 7, 2008
I never thought we'd be friends -- Me & FVWM
Well, I have been looking for a suitable replacement for KDE3 of late on my laptop -- tried enlightenment and chucked it. Nice desktop, very elegant feeling but just not my bag :|. Kicked through and finished working with FVWM, I chose to install the unstable 2.5.x build in port.
Normally I'll only use stable releases unless I'm testing or in need of a 'sneak peak' but this time I opted in. I figure, it should be fairly stable with how long FVWM has been around. The original code base of FVWM 1.x was born in 1993 making it about as old as FreeBSD lol. FVWM 2.5 has newer features and I don't mind a few quirks really, as long as my session doesn't die or the entire system lock up.
So far FVWM is really proving it's possible to have a desktop *your way* without having to kill someone in the process !
I've always thought that if I'm ever going to find a window manager I truly love; I probably would have to write my own. I like programs that are powerful, configurable, and extensible -- that's one of the reasons I use Vim in the first place >_>
I have my pager and a useful means of employing my laptops limited screen space. The way The Flibin' Virtual Window Manager as I call it, handles virtual desktops is actually quite nice. The M by N thing and configuration options have given me a very nice arrangement for working with many programs. Especially in my case, since I need to work with windows that are some times larger then my screen resolution!
Rather then resize the program (scroll bars, ugh) or rescale it as the situation may offer. I can just scroll my screen between the pages and vola! The illusion that the desktop is much bigger then it really is, really fits with the way I use programs.
I installed x11/trayer to get myself a (transparent) system tray, I actually like how FVWM handles iconifing windows but for some apps a system tray is helpful (pidgin). Notice that I do not have a taskbar, desktop icons, or a 'panel' -- don't need them nore want them most times.
I like to keep my workspace very thin, it's for running programs not holding up bells and whistles everywhere. I fI wanted to look at bells and whistles (or unhide them when going to the screen border) I'd run them outright. And covering or autohiding the panel (KDE, Gnome, Windows) is a poor solution for my habits +S.
I have my FVWM configuration launching a program to auto-rotate my wall paper, need to properly daemonize it someday soon. I'm considering giving the X Session Manager (xsm) a whirl as well, worth a try judging by the manual page. I still have some more work to do but so far, I like how it has come out in such a short time.
Why didn't I ever try the F* Virtual Window Manager before? lol.
Normally I'll only use stable releases unless I'm testing or in need of a 'sneak peak' but this time I opted in. I figure, it should be fairly stable with how long FVWM has been around. The original code base of FVWM 1.x was born in 1993 making it about as old as FreeBSD lol. FVWM 2.5 has newer features and I don't mind a few quirks really, as long as my session doesn't die or the entire system lock up.
So far FVWM is really proving it's possible to have a desktop *your way* without having to kill someone in the process !
I've always thought that if I'm ever going to find a window manager I truly love; I probably would have to write my own. I like programs that are powerful, configurable, and extensible -- that's one of the reasons I use Vim in the first place >_>
I have my pager and a useful means of employing my laptops limited screen space. The way The Flibin' Virtual Window Manager as I call it, handles virtual desktops is actually quite nice. The M by N thing and configuration options have given me a very nice arrangement for working with many programs. Especially in my case, since I need to work with windows that are some times larger then my screen resolution!
Rather then resize the program (scroll bars, ugh) or rescale it as the situation may offer. I can just scroll my screen between the pages and vola! The illusion that the desktop is much bigger then it really is, really fits with the way I use programs.
I installed x11/trayer to get myself a (transparent) system tray, I actually like how FVWM handles iconifing windows but for some apps a system tray is helpful (pidgin). Notice that I do not have a taskbar, desktop icons, or a 'panel' -- don't need them nore want them most times.
I like to keep my workspace very thin, it's for running programs not holding up bells and whistles everywhere. I fI wanted to look at bells and whistles (or unhide them when going to the screen border) I'd run them outright. And covering or autohiding the panel (KDE, Gnome, Windows) is a poor solution for my habits +S.
I have my FVWM configuration launching a program to auto-rotate my wall paper, need to properly daemonize it someday soon. I'm considering giving the X Session Manager (xsm) a whirl as well, worth a try judging by the manual page. I still have some more work to do but so far, I like how it has come out in such a short time.
Why didn't I ever try the F* Virtual Window Manager before? lol.
Friday, June 6, 2008
thoughts of home...
Trapped in hell
Another day, home from the long toils of the field
Only to be beaten down, pounded into dust
Yet another season gone, never to return
Spent all for the sake of my torment
At the pleasure of those who should care
That a tiny bit of me passes away into nothingness
Day by day, never to return.
Another day, wasted and trashed before me
Spent all on the monsters whims.
Never again to grace the sky,
That free spirit, flying so high.
Soaring on the airs of its discoveries
To face that same fate....
To be dragged, drowned, stomped into the ground
All for the tormentors pleasure -- and my souls destruction.
It's just another day in hell,
Trapped in that pit so deep, without an escape.
Watching my existence being ripped away,
Thrown into the flames, forever more
To burn in agony.
Oh why, oh why didn't I flee this place while I had the chance.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
JavaSwing.strange()
This is very funky. I downloaded a tutorial file from sun for Java's Swing toolkit and it compiles fine but can't find the main thread when compiled & run as directed.
I comment out the 'package start;' at the top, recompile and it runs fine >_>
To be honest, I think I'm sort of happy I've never written a lot of Java code... Especially because most encounters whereByPeopleWhoHaveTypeNames andVarNamesThisLong which kind of pisses me off lol.
I do have Qt Jambi installed on my desktop but the problem is family really makes it easier to write code off my laptop, since I get get further away from the line of fire... Which means without a fair bit of tinkering, it'll be easier to write the GUI in Javas Swing.
I did learn a little of AWT way back when but I doubt any of it is still good by now lol.
I comment out the 'package start;' at the top, recompile and it runs fine >_>
To be honest, I think I'm sort of happy I've never written a lot of Java code... Especially because most encounters whereByPeopleWhoHaveTypeNames andVarNamesThisLong which kind of pisses me off lol.
I do have Qt Jambi installed on my desktop but the problem is family really makes it easier to write code off my laptop, since I get get further away from the line of fire... Which means without a fair bit of tinkering, it'll be easier to write the GUI in Javas Swing.
I did learn a little of AWT way back when but I doubt any of it is still good by now lol.
Writer's Block: Funniest Thing Ever.
Out of all the funny things that have ever happened to you, which experience still cracks you up?
Live Journals Writer's Block
Without a doubt?
Cored in a second flat!
I was in a casual game of MechWarrior 4: Mercs with a friend, her smoke signals host (AOL Dial up), and the Op4 was three of her killer 'Mech configs piloted by level 9 bots (the hardest mode). I was piloting my Shadow Cat, a 45 Ton medium 'Mech and iirc she had her Black Knight.
I was like, "Ok I'll go destract them you go flank" and before she could warn me, I jump jetted over the wall and BAM
My 'Mech exploded as they cored out my Shadow Cat about as fast as my legs cleared the wall hahahaha !!
Crap, we were laughing till it hurt after that one lol. Normally bots can't fight worth a darn on any difficualty level let along the maximum but when shes the engineer -- RUN FOR IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hmm, it's been awhile since I last thought about the 'cored in a second flat' thing hehe. That's one thing I always liked about playing with Lioness, she was brilliant at putting together strike packages. Blending the perfect mixture of weapons payloads to balance both human and bot skills with the desired effect, and to top it off grouping them into strike groups of demi-lances or larger. Often 2 assault 'Mechs and a heavy or a med, hvy, and aslt.
Some of those configurations were scary :\
And I'm a guy who used to train versus like 12 level 9 bots lol.
My favorite part about Mech Warrior was the ability to design 'Mech configurations. I was never really happy that in competitive play, I usually ended up in 'Mechs designed for the more natural 'stand up fight' of a league drop -- weapons were largely limited to the heaviest hitting ones grouped in mass, alpha striking was the goal. Like the common street-fight Highlander every body used for short to medium range work and urban ops.
About 90 tons of jump 'Mech with low slung arms, big torso sections and tall legs. But that sucker could pack a heavy gauss rifle (the biggest gun back then) plus still cram in clan guass, light gauss rifle (basically super long range), and a capacitor packed particle projector cannon (PPC) -- meaning one big alpha strike. It only had a 600 Metre rang eon the heavy gauss but the closer you got, the harder the gauss rifles hit. Heck if you got as close as 400m the heavy gauss would probably critical most heavy 'Mechs in one center torso shot.
That's how competitive MW4 play was, speed was a luxury for most, heat sinks dead weight, armour was cheap compared to guns. And if it couldn't destroy any 'Mech in the game with two direct hits, your 'Mech was too weak for combat. Although of course in games where we got points by damage done rather then kills (never very popular) people would mix in some shredders using short or long range missiles.
The only big difference between long range and short range combat was for brawling we took shotguns (LBX Autocannon) and heavy lasers most times, for sniping we took Gauss rifles, PPC, and ER Large Lasers :\. So what if I could work a 70 Ton Nova Cat with 7 ER Lasers, minimal reflective armour, 90+ KPH engine and no heat sinks what so ever, and go hill-humping as the Nova-style sniping was nick named, blasting away 'Mechs ? I much rather have been in a little ol' Shadow Cat or a Raven zigging and zagging through the battlefield.
In some ways, I envy my old partner in the engineering wing. She never played competitively (good for me because her personal 'Mech was the Queen of Alpha Strikes) but she also always used the style of 'Mechs that she preferred to bring into virtual combat (y).
She was always a great one at designing 'Mechs for all range combat, a skill very few people ever developed well. My own line of bots got used for training but were never quite up to par with Lionesses monsters from a Doom speed run lol.
Although, I did work together a group of bots that cored my shadow cat in half a second once lol.
They were never quite up to that same nightmare configs that she cooked up :-(.
I remember she once gave me her personal 'Mechs configuration, a 75-Ton Black Knight that had an alpha strike that put 100 ton 'Mechs to shame!!! When I brought it to bare against' my friends 'Mechs they couldn't believe it hit so hard haha. It was like bringing a midget to a sumo match and packing the death stars super laser !
With Lionesses very much respected permission, I eventually gave my buddies the config so they could stop (wrongly) trying to reverse engineer it on her >_>.
*shakes head*, that girl was a bloody genius of 'Mech Engineering!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Double nightmares
Hit the hay early, to tired to get back to finishing my program. Caught most of Matrix Reloaded but dozed on/off through the end of it, and finally woke up after whats essentially a double nightmare :\
First off...Family driving me bonkers about things but as it works out.. Some time of peace and a party due later.
Ended up on a date with a very beautiful woman ^_^
The nightmare? I was too freaking busy going to and fro, that I was stuck wasting what was otherwise a perfect situation lol. That really was a nightmare... just horrible +S Like one of those times you would need brain damage for it to not go well... But stuck working on everything and so there it goes out the window figuratively speaking. That was a torturing dream to have to go through...
Second off... Well, not really a nightmare so much asa more normal dream +S. Stuck following in a News crew and Canadian SWAT team armed with suppressed FAMAS G2's going for an assault on a large TV-like building (ala Gremlins 2 style). But guess what? A Predator on the roof pumping them all full of Plasma by the time we hit the lobby, plus terrorists all over the place with machine gun emplacements setup inside to finish the job -- just great!!!
After getting knocked cold in a "smashing" fight with one, ended up stranded with the camera crew running off scared of the predator, and only a treasure seeking trooper turned tomb raider wanta be for company. In search of an ancient Egyptian tomb hidden under the building. Maanged to get past the terrorists fine but stuff in the building has come to life and started to run amuck.
Not to mention once we got to the area, after a few mishaps... It's guarded by like a dozen leopards who are very pissed off at us trespassing... The plan of getting through them with ignitables and fire didn't go so well and we nearly got scratched to death and chewed on before finding a way up, up, and away from them lol. Finally reach the goal.. but decide it's not morally right and leave the tomb raider to plunder it while I search for an exit without more hungry or plastic creatures in the way.
*shakes head*
I have the craziest dreams don't I? The second one I don't mind so much but the first...
Maybe my friends are right, I work to damn much lol.
The ironic thing of it all? It's 0500 in the morning and if I don't get back to sleep, to get up for work on time, my goose will be cooked !
First off...Family driving me bonkers about things but as it works out.. Some time of peace and a party due later.
Ended up on a date with a very beautiful woman ^_^
The nightmare? I was too freaking busy going to and fro, that I was stuck wasting what was otherwise a perfect situation lol. That really was a nightmare... just horrible +S Like one of those times you would need brain damage for it to not go well... But stuck working on everything and so there it goes out the window figuratively speaking. That was a torturing dream to have to go through...
Second off... Well, not really a nightmare so much asa more normal dream +S. Stuck following in a News crew and Canadian SWAT team armed with suppressed FAMAS G2's going for an assault on a large TV-like building (ala Gremlins 2 style). But guess what? A Predator on the roof pumping them all full of Plasma by the time we hit the lobby, plus terrorists all over the place with machine gun emplacements setup inside to finish the job -- just great!!!
After getting knocked cold in a "smashing" fight with one, ended up stranded with the camera crew running off scared of the predator, and only a treasure seeking trooper turned tomb raider wanta be for company. In search of an ancient Egyptian tomb hidden under the building. Maanged to get past the terrorists fine but stuff in the building has come to life and started to run amuck.
Not to mention once we got to the area, after a few mishaps... It's guarded by like a dozen leopards who are very pissed off at us trespassing... The plan of getting through them with ignitables and fire didn't go so well and we nearly got scratched to death and chewed on before finding a way up, up, and away from them lol. Finally reach the goal.. but decide it's not morally right and leave the tomb raider to plunder it while I search for an exit without more hungry or plastic creatures in the way.
*shakes head*
I have the craziest dreams don't I? The second one I don't mind so much but the first...
Maybe my friends are right, I work to damn much lol.
The ironic thing of it all? It's 0500 in the morning and if I don't get back to sleep, to get up for work on time, my goose will be cooked !
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