Punkadyne Labs

A window into my childhood

2008-08-19T20:48:17Z

Kids of the 1970s probably remember the Dinky toys. I used to get some of these models from Sullivan's Toy Store in Tyson's Corner back in the 1970s. I played with them until they broke, which seemed to be quicker for those with plastic parts and slower with those who had all metal ones. I had this catalog for a long time, and sometimes I'd read it, envious of the models I didn't have, but my friend Andy and Pat did.

http://www.zeigermann.com/toys/Dinky_1974/dinky_1974.html

Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-19T03:47:56Z

My latest brain droppings

13:35 hates his hypertension. Maybe I don't hunt enough elk. #
13:37 The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. #
13:44 I like the idea of democracy. You have to have someone everyone distrusts. That way, everyone's happy. #
15:41 A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he starts out, have condemned himself to second-rate thoughts, and to second-rate friends, #
15:43 I can't wait to foster kittens again... #
16:36 Honey? Where is my super suit? #
17:49 There are strange creatures dressed as humans on the Metro today. What do they want? #
17:52 The woman sitting in front of me hasn't blinked for 5 minutes. Thats not normal. #
19:43 @grayhawk I said, where. is. my. super suit??? #
19:44 I sort of succeeded in getting an iPhone. Screw the Apple Store, AT&T is going to order one for me. I get one in 2-14 days. #
21:42 @grayhawk *Where*? #
21:43 is very glad he doesn't have to deal with the dating scene. Apparently it sucks quite a lot. #

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Attempt to get the iPhone #8 - F... no, wait!

2008-08-19T02:02:10Z

Today, I was all out of sorts at work. On top of that, two friends of mine were having relationship crises. I shouldn't IM at work, but friends are better long term strategies than work, I feel, and a better investment. I have no regrets.

So, CR's cell phone died months ago, which wasn't so dramatic because it was over 2 years old. But getting a replacement has been one of those constant near misses. So we went to the AT&T store, and he got a Samsung phone with a name that sounds like an airplane part. He was due for a free upgrade as was I, so I asked about the iPhone. "Oh, we can order it right here, and you can pick it up." Awesome. I was sick of near misses at Apple Stores, so I ordered one. They said "they tell us it will take up to two weeks, but most people get it in a week, and recently, as little as two days. We call you, you pick it up, okay?"

Okay!

Here's to hoping it comes sooner rather than later!

Weekend in review

2008-08-18T16:38:51Z

I think some of my entries have been sparse recently, and I haven't had much excitement going on I can talk about.

Friday night I hung out with Anya and Brian. We had a great dinner made by Anya before we dealt with some weird plumbing problem. Ahhh... the joys of being a homeowner, right? But that seemed to fix itself (the uneasiest kind of fix), we went to 7-11 to pick up snacks, and then Anya and I finished the night off by watching "Surf's Up."

That was a great movie. I kinda wanted to see it when it came up, but like so many other movies, it was too far down the "To do" list that I never saw the light of day again. The film was great, far better than I expected. I sort of expected it to be a spoof on the surfer/skaterpunk documentaries, and it had that, but that wasn't the entire movie. It had a plot, and the film subtly went from "we're making a documentary" to a heartwarming redemption piece without being too Disney-esque sappy. The first thing that got me was the DETAIL of the documentary feel. I really felt like these people knew the essence of the 1970s retro documentary. There were also a lot of small details about surfers I recall from 70s culture that was really a nice touch. The next thing was how GOOD the animation was. It was like that pinnacle of going from "look what we can do and make it look real" to "we're no longer constrained by the medium. Like how I felt about "Jurassic Park," you forget it's animated. The last thing that I really liked was a lot of background humor you may miss the first time around. Those that have seen the film, I am talking about stuff like the squid lifeguard rescue can that Lani holds, and poor Arnold the hapless penguin chick.

The small penguin children/chicks? Cute. As. Hell.

I got home at 2:30 in the morning, burping a taste of coffee and hot dogs, which has turned me off to 7-11 coffee forever. Yes, my vanilla coffee tasted like coffee and hot dogs, and those machines weren't even near one another. Gee-ross.

Saturday I spent with the Heares. aksident was at a funeral much of the day. One of her people from a circle of friends had died very suddenly of heart failure, which shook her up a bit, so we spent a lot of time afterwards talking it out. I spent the evening sitting the kids, and I found that the three younger kids LOVE the show, "Top Gear." And they love car crashes. This reminds me of a coworker at Cargo Furniture, Lascetta, who drove in these competitions. I might see if there's some debries going on locally this fall, and take the kids to one. stodgycat and cheesy_reads took advantage of having me as a sitter, and went to Yoga and had dinner out (something that parents with 4 kids rarely get, I was happy to provide that for them). The evening ended until 1 in the morning again with a game of Illuminati.

Sunday was a lot of housework. I did several loads of laundry, I cleaned out the kitchen, paid some bills, cleaned the cat boxes, did some trash, and clipped the cat's claws. I spent some time with takayla and had dinner at the Silver Diner.

CR was working the night shift, so I went to his shop and walked home with him. Not that he needed it, but he wanted me to walk him TO work to just hang out, but I couldn't. So I walked him from work, hung out with Eugene for a bit, and we discussed various topics on the way back. He got his first paycheck, and now he has to open up a bank account.

takayla and I finished the evening watching the Roast of Bob Saget on Comedy Central. As always, a good show.

Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-18T03:49:49Z

My latest brain droppings

11:07 remembers a time when the weekend meant looking forward to a dozen hours of Dungeons and Dragons at a friend's house. Now it's just napping #
11:10 I think "I Can Has Cheezburger" would have been funny when I was a teenager, and be one of several things no one else would have "gotten." #
12:29 recalls some advice column where, "You can tell if a man is married if he smells like Fabric Softener." That's right, it's laundry day! #
15:34 Why do some of my cats pee only in one corner of the litterbox? It pretty much makes clumping litter more a problem than a solution. #

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Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-17T03:51:13Z

My latest brain droppings

23:57 Why does my 7-11 coffee taste like hot dogs? #
10:49 The animated penguin movie "Surfs Up" is actually REALLY good. Nice homage to surf/punk documentaries. Better than Clone Wars, I am sure. #
22:59 Is part of the conspiracy #

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TSA for Veggie Tales

2008-08-16T14:24:20Z

http://idea-sandbox.com/blog/2008/07/what-is-burger-king-thinking/

This Burger King paper tray liner found at a German Airport shows just what happens to bad veggies. The iconic gay bondage TSA guard puts on a rubber glove while the poor onion, having been exposed by his collection of vegetable pr0n (really), shakes with either fear or anticipation for a cavity search that ... wait, what?

The details are astounding. The artist definitely has some issues to sort out. Notice the sly "I like to watch" pickle in the background, watching his dominant partner take on that familiar role that made him fall in love with the mustache in the first place.

Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch, scammer style!

2008-08-16T04:24:51Z

I laughed so hard... I nearly lost it. These guys are actually pretty good.

"This is a video created by a Nigerian email scammer who thinks he is producing a video for a scholarship payment from a victim he tried to scam. Unfortunately for this particular scammer, the "victim" fought back and created a fake video production company with promises of cash!

It has to be noted that the two people who appear in this video are probably not scammers themselves. More than likely they are amateur actors paid to do the work on the scammer's behalf. Even though their acting is petty shaky, they do seem to have had previous experience! "

Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-16T03:48:15Z

My latest brain droppings

07:57 Is sweepy... #
08:00 Wonders why the cathedral on Catholic University's campus looks like a mosque? #
08:48 @apeyanne Better idea: get time machine, go back to 1983-ish here: tinyurl.com/act-park #
08:49 got new shoes, forgot to put them on today. One more day with old, falling apart shoes FTW! #
13:17 @grayhawk man, it must be the weather because WOW I am running into some dumb employees today. Holy gee...! #
13:18 knew he shouldn't have gotten up this morning. I KNEW it! Why don't I listen? "OOoOOOoh... I'm not siiick... I should g--" NO! #
13:19 just ate a giant white chocolate chip cookie so I can crash in about 20-40 minutes and pass out, making the day go faster. Yay diabetes! #
13:25 @apeyanne if I lived closer I could have skipped, too, and hung out at Paul's workplace. "I wanna lite half-caf double-skim mocha hou-hou!" #
15:25 @apeyanne yeah, I was gonna warn you not to see that film... :( You're like my biggest Star Wars fan friend, and I hurt for you. #
15:59 I hate dookers who get on a subway car and just stop right there. MOVE!! #
16:03 I also hate jerks who stop across a ped Xing at a light. I always stare @ the driver like a martian #

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Another One Rides The Bus - Weird Al 1981

2008-08-16T03:12:47Z

I actually remember this broadcast. It might be the first time I actually saw what Weird Al looked like. He didn't look like I thought he would.

This song was one my favorites back then because I rode the bus a lot, I liked Queen, and Dr. Demento was one of my idols as a kid.

NB: David Letterman replaced Tom Snyder in 1982 for that ultra-lite-night slot, and this caused a big stink. Personally, I liked David better than Tom because sometimes Tom was an outright jerk. Tom was livid, IIRC, and said some pretty career-damaging things over the incident. Later, on SNL, Joe Piscopo did a great impression of him (back when Joe was funny and not some overpumped muscleman like Carrot Top ended up being).

Attempt to get the iPhone #7 - Fail

2008-08-15T15:53:04Z

Me: [unreasonably crabby] You're already out?
Apple: Yeah, since 1 this afternoon.
Me: I notice on your site it says to line up early. If I get here at 8am, will you have phones at 8am?
Apple: N... not really. We usually get them around 9 or 10. Sometimes as late as the afternoon. Today we got them around 10, and ran out around 1 with the lunch crowd.
Me: How many do you get every day?
Apple: I cannot disclose that.
Me: Like give me a ballpark figure, a thousand?
Apple: Oh, far less than that.
Me: I just read your stores sell an average of 95 a day. Given that you run out, would it be safe to say you only get about 100 a day?
Apple: Close to that, usually.
Me: Given that your entire store is covered with posters and displays advertising the iPhone 3G, plus numerous ads on TV and in the mall displays, do you think it's fair that you are always out? Doesn't that sound like bait and switch?
Apple: Switch with what? No one comes here for an iPhone and gets a laptop instead.
Me: Touche...

I have to say, no Apple employee has ever been surly, unfriendly, or confrontational to me during any of this. In fact, they have been downright nice and helpful. They pick and train these people well.

Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-15T04:00:28Z

My latest brain droppings

07:54 Oh, WMATA, is there end to your new ways to break down or catch fire? #
07:58 Sigue Sigue Sputnik: AFFORDABLE FIREPOWER!! #
11:38 One of the techs is very frustrated that a customer isn't listening. "No, what does it say above that. ABOVE that! No, that's below it!" #
12:33 @grayhawk ... don't EVEN try to out-Freud reference @apeyanne. You know her educational background? She'll leave you in the dust, Jung man. #
12:35 wishes he had an iPhone. #
13:20 WTF is with the expressions of models? Very few looking natural. It's always this dumb submissive stare like, "Duuuh... you're hot, Mister." #
13:24 Note to homeless dude in front of building, it's "Hakuna Matata" not "My doola oblongatta!" Stop singing, please. KTHXBAI. #
14:32 @apeyanne he was definitely saying "My doola oblongatta!" because to him, that was his "manhood" that he was grabbing while singing. #
14:34 is gonna party in Annandale Friday night. Woo! #
15:04 wonders who turned off the lights? #
17:04 Another dumb twit made me miss a train because they blocked me w/a pull-toy briefcase! #
17:07 What kind of person sees an ad for a C-27 aircraft on the Metro and says, 'Ill buy one!'? #
18:56 @lexsaur and her "Beer and Candy" diet now endorsed by Guinness and Toblerone, who remind you a sugar crash cancels out a hangover. #
20:05 Our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie. But ask yourself: How often do you eat apple pie? How often do you eat Pizza or Chinese food? #
20:53 sense darkness, storms coming. #
21:05 always wonders if he never watched the news, how stressed he'd still be? Or clueless. [snort] "Why's gas to high? Oh, I don't own a TV..." #

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Attempt to get the iPhone #5 & #6 - Fail

2008-08-14T16:35:08Z

I still don't have an iPhone.

Last Saturday, I was hanging out with Anya and she made it her solemn duty to try and find a store with an iPhone. We went to Fair Oaks and Tysons Corner, and they were out of the 8gb (although they had the 16gb, but I didn't budget an extra $100 for what I'd call "my impatience"). She even called Pentagon City and Ballson. God, I am glad she's my sister. But I predict I will get a phone sooner rtaher than later at this point. I recently heard starting in early September, Best Buy would start carrying the iPhone. I told takayla, "So now they can run out there, too."

I found out At&T/Apple has no insurance plan for iPhone. I have that with my RAZR, and it's come in handy in the last few years. The phone has been replaced twice due to defects, which makes me a little nervous with the iPhone. There's reports of some people getting teeny cracks around the edges of the plastic, and the 3G network timing out randomly. I am not much of a "cosmetic" guy like a lot of purist Apple fanatics. So there's a stain, a tiny crack, a feature I don't use has a small bug. Those I can deal with. My RAZR has had its fair share of stupidity in design flaws. But if I see some large number of reports of major flaws like "bricking" for no reason, then I would tell Apple to shove off. So far, no big reports of such silliness.

My RAZR is holding in there, and will hold a charge for about 2 days, unless I use it for a call, and then it drops off rather sharply. I am texting a lot more than I used to, and despite the horror of doing so with a small keypad, I am getting much better at it.

On Tuesday, I went and tried again, and they ran out while I was in line which bummed me out, but REALLY made one of the people ahead of me angry. "You mean I waited here for 40 minutes JUST for you to run out??? Couldn't you have told me how many you had left or something?"

Despite a lot of the iPhone hype, both positive and negative, I still have only seen a few more "in the wild." Not surprisingly, most of them with people in or near an Apple store. Most are looking for accessories. My biggest worry is physical protection, both in preventing me from breaking it (and its all glass front) and preventing it from being stolen. I have to tread a fine line between safety and usability, too. For instance, there are some hard shell aluminum cases out there, but when my phone rings, how long will it take me to fetch it out of my pocket, open the case up, and answer the phone by the fourth ring? I like my hip holster I have now for the RAZR, but I think the iPhone will be too big for that. They make hip holsters for the iPhone, but given how many times I bump into things, I worry about the all glass front. If there was a hard-shell holster case, that might work, but so far, I have seen only holsters without much "bang into corner" protection. A lot of scratch proofing but not much for impact. To be fair, I have only dropped my RAZR a few times in my life, and it's been fine: I am usually pretty careful. But it only has to happen once... and I am out a phone and $$$$ for a new one.

I am also a bit bummed it doesn't work with Linux currently. This may change someday, now that the iPhone is getting mega-popular, but my iPod Nano 3Gen doesn't play nice with Linux. I have tried various utilities for that, and while I can read, play, and delete songs from the iPod, I can't add them. So, to be honest, the ONLY thing I am using Windows for now at home is my iPod. And I guess iPhone.

Some other concerns was the touch screen keypad and my large fingers, but there are tools for that, plus some alternate software options.

Some people have asked, and a few with a hint of in disdain, why not get another phone? Apple users are elitist losers. Truth is, it's not about the hype at all. The hype, if anything, is annoying, if anything, because it's prevented me from getting one in a timely manner. It's the flexibility, ease of software, decent Apple support, and the plethora of software and accessories out there. This phone will be my camera (better than the RAZR one), my music player (replacing my iPod), my phone, and my Internet browser. Plus it will have maps, useful tech tools, and provide my entertainment. I have handled one, I have spent time with friends who have them, I know its limitations, and think the benefits outweigh the problems.

Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-14T03:52:47Z

My latest brain droppings

08:58 "Save Ferris." Only, instead of Ferris, save Glark. Shit, I hope he doesn't die. I can't handle summer school. #
17:16 I think almost every TV cartoon made from 1965 to 1990 sucked. There, I said it. Hanna Barbera can kiss my ass. Suck it, Filmation. #
17:27 Is going to be the only admin in my company for the next 4 days! I scared! #
20:45 "... and starring Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln." #
21:12 "Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." - Mark Twain #

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Clone Wars: Not what you'd expect in a Star Wars film

2008-08-13T13:38:25Z

From here:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/2008/starwarstheclonewars.php

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" follows the story of Bud Johnson (Kevin Costner), an apathetic, beer-slinging, lovable loser, who is coasting through a life that has passed him by. The one bright spot is his precocious, over-achieving twelve-year-old daughter Molly. She takes care of both of them, until one mischievous moment on Election Day, when she accidentally sets off a chain of events which culminates in the election coming down to one vote... her dad's. "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" is a comical look at the journey of one father and daughter who discover that everyone has the power to change the world.

Um... you know, this is just a stab in the dark, but I think someone connected to the wrong string in a CSS that uses a database back end. Either that, or Togruta Jedi Padawans are more politically motivated than I would have guessed, and the movie "Swing Vote" is just a shameless copy of their plot with big names.

Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-13T03:51:28Z

My latest brain droppings

12:19 Red meat isn't bad for you. Fuzzy blue-green meat is bad for you. #
12:32 hates shopping for new shoes. Hates spending money. Hates wearing shoes that have holes in them. What a conundrum. #
12:57 It's "Malcolm X" not "Malcolm the Tenth." #
15:18 I hate it when I try to sneak out of work the back way, and get caught red-handed by meddling medical nerds! WTF? :) #
15:25 I will be 40 in November. I feel like society wants me to care, but I don't care. I was told by a doc I'd be dead at age 20. Bonus round! #
16:28 I love my Doc Martens, but the steel toe cuts into the sides of my toes. I can get new Docs without the steel toe. For a price... :( #
17:05 The new Cthulhu movie looks good. Oh, wait, Tori Spelling? No. Well, Kathy Ireland did okay in "Alien from LA," so why not? #
19:45 My new camera came. w00t! Hope it lasts a long time. #
19:52 There is no rational or evolutionary reason my dog likes jellybeans. They don't occur in nature! Why does he wants them so badly? #
20:22 7.0 megapxels x 8gb card = 7255 photos I can store on this camera. That's more than twice the number of photos on my Flickr account now. #

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Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-12T03:54:56Z

My latest brain droppings

10:28 is wondering when the camera he got from a "Woot-off" will show up. I already got the iPod FM transmitter. #
10:30 doesn't miss being a teenager at all. God, the drama! The pain! The heartbreak of acne. And nobody ever takes you seriously... #
10:32 thinks adults who say. "these are the best years of your life" to kids should be locked in a closet and forced to listen to Yoko Ono albums #
12:29 wonders how he's going to swing a trip to Sweden next year. See the lovli lakes, the majestic m00se? #
12:30 is not grokking the grep. #
13:36 @ninjacooter is it me, or does Vincent Price pronounce it "thrimmer?" Couldn't they get that out in editing? Have him repeat it? WTF? #
13:46 wants everyone to know "Thriller" is a Disco song. Oh, it came out years after "Disco died" but it's as Disco as the BeeGees, folks. #
16:43 remembers the acronym for the cert "MCITP" as "MCI Toilet Paper," because that what he thinks of MCI and Microsoft, in general. #
16:46 Just once, I'd like to be able to vote for the better of two goods.. #
17:53 Yay! I am not on-call for 2 weeks! The pager is someone else's problem! #
21:39 Did you know "Labyrinth" has a sequel put out by Jim Henson studios? It came out last year, and it's a manga. I am reading it now. #
23:35 I'll meet you all in the lake of fire with my asbestos duckie! #
23:38 Hostes aliengeni me abduxerent. Qui annus est? #
23:41 ...but it wasn't a rock... it was a ROCK LOBSTER!!!! #

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Man... I gotta study hard

2008-08-11T20:05:24Z

This is gonna be one big year for my edjumacation. Here's what's on my docket to learn and pass by May of next year:

LPI 101: Exam Aug 29th
LPI 102: Hopefully an exam by mid-Sept (if I pass both, I am LPI Level 1 certified)
Network+: Exam around mid-Oct
Linux+: Exam around mid-Nov
MCITP: Server Administrator by Christmas (3 exams)
LPI 201 & 202: by February (to get LPI Level 2 certs)
RHCE: Re-cert for Red Hat (mine will expire) Dine by April
LPI 301: Done by May/June (to get LPI Level 3 certs)

I'll be certified to install Windows or Linux on a dead badger by then.

LPI 101 Exam notes: 18 days to exam

2008-08-11T17:48:54Z

ABC
abc
xyz

If I did an egrep ^A I got just the 1st line, which is what I expected. If I did an egrep [^A], all 3 lines showed up. I expected the 1st line not to. But I think the [^A] means "the whole line," because when I added a 4th line that simply said "A", it didn't show up in either egrep. And to prove this theory, I did egrep [^ABC], and to my surprise, neither the 1st OR 4th lines showed up! In addition, a egrep [^CBA] had the same result. So I am just not "getting" this at all. Is is an "both and/or" situation, like a "super-and?" I added a 5th line, and made it simply "B." egrep [^CBA] excluded it, but egrep [^BA] showed the 1st line, "ABC" which seems to support my theory of "super-and."

This needs more meditation for my teeny, teeny brain.

__________
Disclaimer: While I have been managing Linux systems for almost 10 years now, but I am mostly self-taught. I have a RHCT certification, but I am taking the LPI and CompTIA Linux+ exams to "flesh out" some of the gaps that occur from too much real-world experience versus my lack of good old fashioned book learnin'. This entry in no way assures you my thoughts are correct, I will have frequent misspellings, and they may or may not help you pass the LPI. HUGE parts of the exam will be missing because I already know half of it by heart, so using me as your only study guide is a terrikle idea. Please read this entry with a healthy amount of skepticim, and PLEASE feel free to correct or add comments! My ego is hardy enough to admit when I am wrong.

Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-11T03:51:59Z

My latest brain droppings

10:23 is miffed @Glark tried to "one up" my obvious fun I was having with Anya and Sophie with "explosions." Had to be better than me, huh? #
14:28 is doing more yard work. Found previous owners buried their construction waste :(. Dammit... #

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More discoveries in my own back yard

2008-08-10T18:47:09Z

For Gahd's sake...

Okay, I have ranted about the previous owners of the house. To summarize a few key points:

- Deeply religious
- Were Amway "Diamond Sellers"
- Couldn't have kids, so adopted 3 boys
- Took in "stray souls," usually let teens hang out in the yard a lot
- Did a lot of house projects, including a 10 foot extension/addition and a new deck, without getting building permits (as required by law)
- Did a lot of housing "improvements" with substandard materials, tried to cover up problems rather than actually fix them

And now I can add "buried construction trash in back yard."

When the neighbor next door cut down her huge sycamore, it exposed 30% of my back yard to sunlight that hadn't touched it since maybe the 1970s. So I decided to clean up the mess that was mostly invisible under the darkness, maybe plant some nice bushes or something. It's been a slow process, mostly because I am out of shape and the only one doing this, but I finally got halfway down what I assumed was our old wood pile. After I pulled away a lot of rotting logs, I found some very odd logs: they seemed to be chunks of pre-cut timber similar to what our old deck was made from. After I started pulling them up, I noticed the ground was spongy. A flew sloppy shoves of a shovel later, I hit vinyl siding. And part of what i think is an old shed door. Oh, fucking awesome. :(

My guess is that they dug a trench, dumped all their trash in it, covered it with a thin layer of dirt, weighted it down with some of the timber, and then put the wood pile on top of it. On one hand, when I remove this trash, my trench for new bushes will be already there. But now I have to see just how MUCH crap is buried back there.

Jesus, guys. You had a huge van, I remember. How fucking hard would it have been to take your goddamn trash to the dump, a mere 2 miles down the road?

Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-10T03:48:15Z

My latest brain droppings

10:36 @apeyanne damn right we come from good stock. Sadly, that makes the men a bit bulky and with oily skin to protect against the cold. #
10:38 wonders if the response "whatever" is technically a passive aggressive statement... or just being a dick? #
11:07 @taraariano, I'd only worry about regression if you're also sitting in front of the TV in your undies listening to a Walkman eating Cheetos #
18:50 is in Ravenswood having a pleasant time with Anya and Sophie #

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Sharing this morning's conversations

2008-08-09T14:59:55Z

SomeUKPerson: Did you just hint you were listening to "The Ting Tings?"
Punkwalrus: Yes.
SomeUKPerson: You have to be joking. They are terrible.
Punkwalrus: I happen to like energetic pop music.
SomeUKPerson: Whatever! That is what makes you so American, right there.
SomeUKPerson: I don't know why you yanks listen to the shit MTV vomits here.
SomeUKPerson: Not very punk.
Punkwalrus: One of the best parts about being punk is I don't have to give a shit about what other people like. Even a Liverpool Limey like you. :)
SomeUKPerson: But the Ting Tings?
Punkwalrus: They have some punk elements. I like music where angry women scream. You know I like Bjork, Janis Joplin, and Joan Jett. You didn't complain about me liking them.
SomeUKPerson: But they have no soul. Next thing you'll be saying is you like Winehouse.
Punkwalrus: Or Gwen Stafani.
SomeUKPerson: ...
SomeUKPerson: ... ?
Punkwalrus: I also like French pop music. Eat it, FEB*. :)
SomeUKPerson: There is no god.
Punkwalrus: Yes.
Punkwalrus: I have removed the God of another Pom. I am better than King Henry VIII!
Punkwalrus: Reverse missionary position FTW!
SomeUKPerson: lol :)

* Fucking English Bastard

Stalking Punkie's Thoughts

2008-08-09T03:51:56Z

My latest brain droppings

08:34 The number of the trash compactor in Star Wars (20th Century Fox, 1977) is 3263827. #
08:40 Congratulations to my buddy Chance for making the JV Volleyball team! Only 1 of 2 freshmen picked. Olympics 2012? Meet 1 of the Heare kids. #
12:20 really has to get it together and study for the LPI exam: test day is in 21 days! #
15:26 is good at grep and basic regular expressions, but could be better. #
18:43 hates migraines. I try to be grateful I don't have them as bad as some, but they suck on days like these. :( #
20:16 napped. Migraines still hurt. #
20:48 "Dora the Explorer" in Sweden is in Swedish, English, AND Spanish... all at the same time. As in trilingual. My brain as-plode. #
21:02 "SpongeBob SquarePants" in Swedish is "Svamp-Bob Fyrkant," which translates to "Mushroom Bob Square." Sponge in Swedish is "tvättsvamp." #

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LPI 101 Exam notes: 21 days to exam

2008-08-08T18:34:33Z

Since I goof off and LJ so much, I have decided to hijack the process and write my study notes and thoughts. But they are probably totally boring for those not interested in Linux. These notes may be very long and disjointed, so... I put them...

For those interested, think there needs to be corrections, have neat trivia, or have some things to say: COMMENTS ARE ENCOURAGED!!!
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So, where was I? You know, I never realized the man command has so much junk around it. I was curious why sometimes they had entries like, "See also smb.conf(8)." What does the "8" stand for? Oh, they are sections! Hah, cool.

I have already spent a few chapters of my main study guide as of this entry, filling in the gaps of my hardware knowledge, notably SCSI and USB.

Now I am learning all the stuff about the bash shell I should have known for these last few years. My first shell was csh, way before bsh, and then bash. I knew that $PS1 was the prompt, but I should type it to remember it. The command export SOMEVAR will make SOMEVAR an environmental variable. I have never needed this, because I mostly work with scripts that are in one shell, but it's nice to know.

There's a note that your last session is the one to write your history to ~/.bash_history. Man, there' also a good list here of commands that WOULD come in useful. Like:

!! - redo last command
!n - redo command n from history. I knew this, but I have never needed it because when I do "history," I just cut and paste from the terminal window.
!-n - Redo command of the last command, minus n. Again, see above.
!string - Redo command that starts with string
!?string - Redo command that contains with string

I think I shall use !?, !string, and !?string more now. Thanks LPI! This is exactly why I wanted to take this exam!

Bash also does Emacs bindings, but I never did Emacs because when given a choice between Emacs and vi, I chose vi because it was on EVERYTHING back in the day, and Emacs was considered a huge memory hog. Note to self: learn Emacs.

The "META" key on a PC keyboard is really the "ALT" key

[Control] + rstring is a handy search thing for a previous command. OooOOooh...

I knew about cut where -d is delimiter and -f is field, head, tail, and nl (number line), but I didn't know about:

expand, which converts tabs to spaces (handy). I has an opposite called unexpand
fmt, which manipulates paragraphs and text width.
od, dumps files in octal and other formats
join, which will join (text) files at various points
split, splits a (text) file into various parts
paste, pastes lines, which can have what to paste with (-d). This would be handy in creating e-mail address lists from /etc/passwd and making cvs files.
pr, which can take text and output them in columns with headers and nifty stuff that is lpr-friendly. This is WAY cool. Go play with it. Here's a command to start you off: ls -a | pr -n -h "Files in $(pwd)."
xargs, Okay, I know about and I use this, but barely understand how it works. I have a LOT of problems with -0 and -print0 and all that when dealing with stupid Windows files with spaces.
tee, which takes std output and puts it on the screen AND a file of your choosing
ps, I only ever do ps aux and ps, never anything else. It's far more flexible, like -Uuser for user, -f for tree, -w for wide (don't truncate), and -Ccommand for command
pstree is a lot like ps -f

They go into kill a lot, and I need to hunker down and study this. Sure, I use "kill -9" all the time, but kill can be used for so much more.

kill -HUP 1015 : Hang up process 1015. This used to be for modems, which would then reset and reload the config for the next call. But nowadays, it's more used for services where you just want the process config to be reread

kill -INT 1015 : Interrupt. This is really what's sent with "[control] + C."

kill -KILL 1015 : Infamous "kill -9" which is "terminate with extreme prejudice."

kill -TERM 1015 : Terminate nicely, if possible. Lets a service shut down gracefully.

kill -TSTP 1015 : Terminate and stop process, but leave it ready to go. It "pauses" the process in most cases, like "[control] + Z"

kill -CONT 1015 : Continue process from TSTP, like fg or fb from a [control] + Z

nice I have always had a weak spot for, since I rarely use it these days. The numbers range from -20 to +19 where, from left to right, are more powerful to weaker (it's counter-intuitive, so think of it like old AD&D Armor class where lower is better). A normal process starts out priority in the dead middle, 0. "Nice" set it to +10, unless you go nice --10 (notice 2 dashes) or nice -n -10, which will set the priority at -10, halfway up the high end of the scale.

renice is best when the program is already running. -u states ALL that users processes. renice -10 -u jdean would set all of jdean's processes to -10 (higher). renice never needs the second dash, BTW.

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Disclaimer: While I have been managing Linux systems for almost 10 years now, but I am mostly self-taught. I have a RHCT certification, but I am taking the LPI and CompTIA Linux+ exams to "flesh out" some of the gaps that occur from too much real-world experience versus my lack of good old fashioned book learnin'. This entry in no way assures you my thoughts are correct, I will have frequent misspellings, and they may or may not help you pass the LPI. HUGE parts of the exam will be missing because I already know half of it by heart, so using me as your only study guide is a terrikle idea. Please read this entry with a healthy amount of skepticim, and PLEASE feel free to correct or add comments! My ego is hardy enough to admit when I am wrong.