For the past couple of years I have been posting a lot on various discussion forums, mostly of a politics / debate nature.
I have gotten pretty sick of it, and it is not contributing to my life or career in any way because it is all anonymous. I want to start posting here again more, since this blog is under my real name and viewed by people who know me in real life.
Hell, I even have a photo up, you lucky son-of-a-gun.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Information overload
What with my variety of projects going on at the moment, I find I am having to study some bizarrely disparate topics all at the same time.
Here is what I have on my reading list at the moment:
Web development
Robotics
... and not to mention, a heapload of proprietary technologies of my client(s).
I tell ya, I'm gonna deserve another degree for all this.
Here is what I have on my reading list at the moment:
Web development
- Movable Type
- Web services / REST
- AJAX
Robotics
- MATLAB / Simulink / Real-Time Workshop
- Gentoo Linux (very bare-bones OS)
- Linux kernel / drivers
- Real-time OS concepts
- Serial port communications (yep... are we suddenly back in 1990 or what?)
... and not to mention, a heapload of proprietary technologies of my client(s).
I tell ya, I'm gonna deserve another degree for all this.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Google Mail Adwords
I was very highly impressed by Google Mail a moment ago.
A relative sent me a mail informing me of a FedEx package he delivered to my parents' house in Ottawa. In the mail he included the following line:
The FedEx tracking number is xxx and its details can be found on the net (http://www.fedex.com/Tracking)
Of course the real number was in place of the xxx. There was more to the mail, besides this line, both before and after it. It was all of a personal nature and didn't talk about the FedEx delivery.
However, Google's Adwords seemed to have parsed the text of the mail so well that it detected the tracking number and the fact that it was a FedEx tracking number. It then provided me with an unobtrusive ad message and link saying "Would you like to track FedEx package xxx". I clicked on the link and it took me to the relevant tracking page on the FedEx site, with all the tracking details.
I thought it was pretty amazing. At the same time, I'm not sure I am crazy about my mails being parsed and analyzed to that extent.
A relative sent me a mail informing me of a FedEx package he delivered to my parents' house in Ottawa. In the mail he included the following line:
The FedEx tracking number is xxx and its details can be found on the net (http://www.fedex.com/Tracking)
Of course the real number was in place of the xxx. There was more to the mail, besides this line, both before and after it. It was all of a personal nature and didn't talk about the FedEx delivery.
However, Google's Adwords seemed to have parsed the text of the mail so well that it detected the tracking number and the fact that it was a FedEx tracking number. It then provided me with an unobtrusive ad message and link saying "Would you like to track FedEx package xxx". I clicked on the link and it took me to the relevant tracking page on the FedEx site, with all the tracking details.
I thought it was pretty amazing. At the same time, I'm not sure I am crazy about my mails being parsed and analyzed to that extent.
New office space
Finally, I'm moving to an office!
I will be sharing a space starting this month with my friends who are running a web design company, located in the chic Miyamasuzaka area, between Shibuya and Omotesando.
I think there will be a great deal of stimulation in that area... hopefully it can fire up some creative juices.
But damn, I'm excited!
Pics will be forthcoming :)
I will be sharing a space starting this month with my friends who are running a web design company, located in the chic Miyamasuzaka area, between Shibuya and Omotesando.
I think there will be a great deal of stimulation in that area... hopefully it can fire up some creative juices.
But damn, I'm excited!
Pics will be forthcoming :)
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Easy Street in China
Now this blog post over at kotaku.com is just too funny.
I am aware of the brutal hours in the game development business. It is one of those few fields where Americans work as ridiculous hours as do the Japanese. I also know of the appropriately-named Insomniac. They make excellent games, like Ratchet and Crank.
I did not know, however, that China was such a "quality of life" place. If anything I thought it would be the absolute opposite.
So much for stereotypes.
I am aware of the brutal hours in the game development business. It is one of those few fields where Americans work as ridiculous hours as do the Japanese. I also know of the appropriately-named Insomniac. They make excellent games, like Ratchet and Crank.
I did not know, however, that China was such a "quality of life" place. If anything I thought it would be the absolute opposite.
So much for stereotypes.
Friday, February 9, 2007
The trouble with men
I really hate the way in a lot of small public bathrooms where there is only a toilet and no urinal, well... you have to watch where you step.
To put it bluntly, some guys just don't know how to aim their wang.
There is piss on the edge of the toilet, on the floor, and god knows where else.
If you have this problem it is so easy just to pull down the seat and sit down and do it. If it feels girly to do so, well, isn't that preferable to being such a slob?
I simply can't comprehend that level of being inconsiderate. Maybe we do collective deserve the scorn women heap on us.
The only saving grace is that guys like that tend to keep the seat up, so consequently it is not affected by, erm, the problem.
To put it bluntly, some guys just don't know how to aim their wang.
There is piss on the edge of the toilet, on the floor, and god knows where else.
If you have this problem it is so easy just to pull down the seat and sit down and do it. If it feels girly to do so, well, isn't that preferable to being such a slob?
I simply can't comprehend that level of being inconsiderate. Maybe we do collective deserve the scorn women heap on us.
The only saving grace is that guys like that tend to keep the seat up, so consequently it is not affected by, erm, the problem.
New blogger template
This is a really cool template. Leave it to those Google folks to come up with the darndest stuff!
Very AJAX-y, what with the collapsable list that doesn't do a page refresh. I look forward to get aquainted with this interface.
Very AJAX-y, what with the collapsable list that doesn't do a page refresh. I look forward to get aquainted with this interface.
Installing LAMP
Linux
Gawd, where to even begin?
If you are fairly non-techie like myself (lol, this blog is deceptive!) I would strongly recommend you go with one of the following distros.
http://www.ubuntu.com
http://www.xandros.com
Apache
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache2
make
make install
MySQL
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
make
make install
groupadd mysql
useradd -g mysql mysql
cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
cd /usr/local/mysql
bin/mysql_install_db --user=mysql
chown -R root .
chown -R mysql var
chgrp -R mysql .
PHP
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/php5 \
--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs \
--with-mysqli=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config \
--enable-debug \
--enable-maintainer-zts
make
make install
Gawd, where to even begin?
If you are fairly non-techie like myself (lol, this blog is deceptive!) I would strongly recommend you go with one of the following distros.
http://www.ubuntu.com
http://www.xandros.com
Apache
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache2
make
make install
MySQL
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
make
make install
groupadd mysql
useradd -g mysql mysql
cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
cd /usr/local/mysql
bin/mysql_install_db --user=mysql
chown -R root .
chown -R mysql var
chgrp -R mysql .
PHP
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/php5 \
--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs \
--with-mysqli=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config \
--enable-debug \
--enable-maintainer-zts
make
make install
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Dad not well
I am in Canada for a fair length of time... my father is not keeping very well. My mother is running around, back and forth to the hospital.
This has been a slight worry I have had for a long time, my living in Japan and my parents getting older. The day seems to have arrived.
What can we do?
This has been a slight worry I have had for a long time, my living in Japan and my parents getting older. The day seems to have arrived.
What can we do?
Friday, September 1, 2006
Some ponderings on email
In the past couple of years personally I have been moving away from mailers and have been viewing email increasingly as a web-based
application.
Because I use a bunch of different machines (currently five: Windoze + Linux, at home and office, plus a laptop) it would be a pain to keep them in sync. It is much easier to just keep the mail on its server and view it on the web.
With my personal mail address, every now and then I will download from the server onto a mailer, and delete from the server. So the mailer has really just become a backup tool. The average mailer "looks and feels" more like a database/information organizer than a communication tool, doesn't it? And I am making use of this aspect of it. I hardly ever send mail from a mailer.
Using a mailer as a backup tool may be akin to the way a cell phone is not really a telephone, but rather a kind of tranceiver device packaged as a telephone.
Perhaps if this kind of usage of email increases then web-based mail interfaces will be equipped with increasingly powerful and customizable options for download, backup and restore in the future.
application.
Because I use a bunch of different machines (currently five: Windoze + Linux, at home and office, plus a laptop) it would be a pain to keep them in sync. It is much easier to just keep the mail on its server and view it on the web.
With my personal mail address, every now and then I will download from the server onto a mailer, and delete from the server. So the mailer has really just become a backup tool. The average mailer "looks and feels" more like a database/information organizer than a communication tool, doesn't it? And I am making use of this aspect of it. I hardly ever send mail from a mailer.
Using a mailer as a backup tool may be akin to the way a cell phone is not really a telephone, but rather a kind of tranceiver device packaged as a telephone.
Perhaps if this kind of usage of email increases then web-based mail interfaces will be equipped with increasingly powerful and customizable options for download, backup and restore in the future.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Apache and MySQL at system startup
Here is what I had to do to get MySQL and Apache to startup automatically on a Ubuntu 6.06 Linux system...
MySQL
-----------------------------------------
References Used
-----------------------------------------
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/lamp.html
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/automatic-start.html
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/mysql-server.html
http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/28
-----------------------------------------
Changed in /etc/my.cnf (From MySQL site)
-----------------------------------------
[mysqld]
user=mysql
-----------------------------------------
Set startup item (From Dreamweaver site)
-----------------------------------------
# sudo cp /usr/local/mysql/share/mysql/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql
# sudo update-rc.d mysql defaults
Results of the update-rc.d command were as follows:
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/mysql ...
/etc/rc0.d/K20mysql -> ../init.d/mysql
/etc/rc1.d/K20mysql -> ../init.d/mysql
/etc/rc6.d/K20mysql -> ../init.d/mysql
/etc/rc2.d/S20mysql -> ../init.d/mysql
/etc/rc3.d/S20mysql -> ../init.d/mysql
/etc/rc4.d/S20mysql -> ../init.d/mysql
/etc/rc5.d/S20mysql -> ../init.d/mysql
Apache
-----------------------------------------
References Used
-----------------------------------------
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/lamp.html
-----------------------------------------
From Dreamweaver site
-----------------------------------------
# sudo cp /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl /etc/init.d/apache
# sudo update-rc.d apache defaults
Results of the update-rc.d command were as follows:
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/apache ...
/etc/rc0.d/K20apache -> ../init.d/apache
/etc/rc1.d/K20apache -> ../init.d/apache
/etc/rc6.d/K20apache -> ../init.d/apache
/etc/rc2.d/S20apache -> ../init.d/apache
/etc/rc3.d/S20apache -> ../init.d/apache
/etc/rc4.d/S20apache -> ../init.d/apache
/etc/rc5.d/S20apache -> ../init.d/apache
Saturday, August 5, 2006
Perl - Issues
Problems encountered on 2006-07-31:
1. Today, for some reason, we are seeing the variables being passed via GET in URLs. This actually sounds more normal, I guess the question is why it wasn't happening before??!!
Solution
- Started calling CGI scripts using:
exec ( "perl my.cgi @sendArgs" );
instead of:
print "Location:my.cgi?arg1=$val1\n\n";
2. IE during file upload
my $uploadFile = param( 'uploadFile' );
sends the entire path, not just the file name.
C:\path\dreaming.zip
Firefox just sends the filename.
Must support both situations.
Solution
Here is the file spec, which varies from IE to Firefox.
my $uploadFile = param( 'uploadFile' );
So I extract the file name
my @pathArr = split( /\\/, $uploadFile );
my $pathEltCnt = scalar( @pathArr );
my $fileName = $pathArr[$pathEltCnt-1];
Some functions need the file spec as provided by the browser, in whatever form.
my $uploadInfo = uploadInfo( $uploadFile );
my $uploadType = $uploadInfo -> { 'Content-Type' };
Note that for opening I use $fileName, but for actual reading I use the original file spec.
open ( UPFILE, "> $dirName/$fileName" ) || die("Cannot open($fileName): $!");
binmode( UPFILE );
my ( $data, $chunk );
my $fileSize = 0;
while ( $chunk = read ( $uploadFile, $data, 1024 ) ) {
print UPFILE $data;
$fileSize += $chunk;
}
close ( UPFILE ) || die("Cannot close($fileName): $!");
1. Today, for some reason, we are seeing the variables being passed via GET in URLs. This actually sounds more normal, I guess the question is why it wasn't happening before??!!
Solution
- Started calling CGI scripts using:
exec ( "perl my.cgi @sendArgs" );
instead of:
print "Location:my.cgi?arg1=$val1\n\n";
2. IE during file upload
my $uploadFile = param( 'uploadFile' );
sends the entire path, not just the file name.
C:\path\dreaming.zip
Firefox just sends the filename.
Must support both situations.
Solution
Here is the file spec, which varies from IE to Firefox.
my $uploadFile = param( 'uploadFile' );
So I extract the file name
my @pathArr = split( /\\/, $uploadFile );
my $pathEltCnt = scalar( @pathArr );
my $fileName = $pathArr[$pathEltCnt-1];
Some functions need the file spec as provided by the browser, in whatever form.
my $uploadInfo = uploadInfo( $uploadFile );
my $uploadType = $uploadInfo -> { 'Content-Type' };
Note that for opening I use $fileName, but for actual reading I use the original file spec.
open ( UPFILE, "> $dirName/$fileName" ) || die("Cannot open($fileName): $!");
binmode( UPFILE );
my ( $data, $chunk );
my $fileSize = 0;
while ( $chunk = read ( $uploadFile, $data, 1024 ) ) {
print UPFILE $data;
$fileSize += $chunk;
}
close ( UPFILE ) || die("Cannot close($fileName): $!");
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