1400 Pages by Ms. B

Steph came home yesterday with seven (!) copies of her dissertation -- 200 pages times seven = 1400 pages of philosophy.



Soon, they were speeding on their way to St. Louis!

Fighting the inevitable absorption of double vowels

Though amoeba has clearly lost to ameba, and anaesthesia is in a similar state, and hardly anyone on this side of the Atlantic spells it encyclopaedia anymore ...

They'll have to pry the second 'a' in 'archaeology' out of my cold, dead hands. I've seen people trying it. They should stop. Really.

The day that Archaeology Magazine drops it, I will. Not a moment before.

Mercy Move

Rather than continuing to subject my friends and family to license plate trivia, I'm moving my Alaskan license plates activity to a new home.

Update 2008-01-09: I finally figured out how to make a Blogger blog a subdomain of a domain elsewhere, so it's now at blog.akplates.org.

New Alaskan license plate: Low Speed Vehicles

As you may have already noticed, I'm an Alaskan license plate geek. Stephanie has mostly trained me out of talking about it to total strangers at parties, but you, dear reader, are fair game.

So here's what the new Low-Speed Vehicle plate looks like:


Notice that the number is less than 100. This is pretty unusual for Alaskan plates on the road today; only the Prisoner of War and Alaska Childrens' Trust ("KID") plates start at zero.

According to Alaska DMV Standard Operating Procedure No. R-465 (hmm ... I wonder what the other 464 are about?):

"A low-speed vehicle (LSV) or neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) is a passenger vehicle that meets the following criteria:

• Four wheels


• Maximum GVWR of 3,000 pounds


• Manufactured to be capable of propelling itself


• Maximum speed of 25 miles an hour


• Has not been modified to have a maximum speed greater than 25 miles an hour

The SOP goes on to say:

"The operator of a low-speed vehicle is subject to all the traffic and other laws applicable to operators of passenger vehicles. A low-speed vehicle may not be operated on a highway that has a maximum speed of more than 35 miles an hour; however, a low-speed vehicle may cross a highway that has a maximum speed limit of more than 35 miles an hour if the crossing is made at the intersection with a highway that is authorized for low-speed vehicles.

I have yet to spot one in the wild, so I trundled down to the Benson office. The nice folks at the DMV got one out for me for a quick photo.

Now I just need to find someone looking to unload a cheap golf cart ...

Why I Don't Shop at Schuck's

Schucks seems to have some long-term contract with my local newspaper to wrap an ad around the comics. Every single Sunday, before I can get my daily dose of Dilbert, I have to put down my spoon and remove it. It's the analog equivalent of a pop-up ad.


Do not get between me and my comics. Those mad mama moose got nothin' on me.

Update 2007-09-23: If you can't see the image, it's because my innate foresight has enabled me to select a filename that raises the hackles of most ad blockers, because it has the (quite descriptive) string "-ad-" in it. Since I haven't the faintest idea how to change an image's filename yet, please temporarily turn off your ad blocker to see it until I grow some clue.

The Alphabet According to Google

If you start typing search terms into Firefox's Google search field, or if you use Google Suggest, Google taps into its knowledge of all searches and tries to guess what you're going to search for.

And if you type in just a single letter, you can really see an interesting slice of our searchable world: the most popular Google searches that start with that letter of the alphabet. Under the most popular one, you will see the others, in order by popularity:



If you don't recognize some of these sites, check them out. Lots of people appear to think that they're worth searching for.

Amazon
Bebo
Craigslist
"dictionary"
eBay
Facebook
Google
Hotmail
IMDb
"jobs"
"Kelly Blue Book" [actually "Kelley"]
"lyrics"
MySpace
"next" [could be the movie, not sure]
Orkut
Photobucket
"quotes"
RuneScape
Sears
Target
"U Tube" [see YouTube]
Verizon
Wikipedia
X Tube [WARNING: Adult content, NSFW]
YouTube
"zip codes"

Some of these suggested searches aren't for a particular site. They're just a search that many people make, and there's no particular site that is more popular than that search. In other words, there's no "killer" site or application that starts with that letter ... yet.

Binary Upgrade to FreeBSD 6.2

After the release of FreeBSD 6.2 was announced today, I decided to try Colin Percival's experimental binary OS upgrade method to upgrade a 6.1-RC2 system to 6.2-RELEASE.

The underlying approach of this method -- the freebsd-update utility -- is included in the FreeBSD base system as of this release. Between OS releases, freebsd-update can be used to keep the OS patched for security vulnerabilities. This makes it much easier to maintain continuity of a system while keeping its operating system current and secure. I love to tinker as much as the next guy ... but when it comes to stability, I love freebsd-update.

The system that I upgraded (heffalump) was originally built as a 6.0 system. Using similar upgrade scripts, I subsequently upgraded to 6.1 and 6.2-RC2 without incident.

For my upgrade to 6.2-RELEASE, I followed the steps outlined here, changing 6.1-RC1 to 6.2-RELEASE where appropriate.

[root@heffalump ~]# date
Mon Jan 15 08:38:32 AKST 2007

[root@heffalump ~]# mkdir /usr/upgrade

[root@heffalump ~]# cd /usr/upgrade
[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade]# fetch http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-update/upgrade-to-6.2.tgz
upgrade-to-6.2.tgz                            100% of   18 kB   20 kBps

[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade]# fetch http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-update/upgrade-to-6.2.tgz.asc
upgrade-to-6.2.tgz.asc                        100% of  187  B  878 kBps

[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade]# gpg --verify upgrade-to-6.2.tgz.asc upgrade-to-6.2.tgz
gpg: directory `/root/.gnupg' created
gpg: new configuration file `/root/.gnupg/gpg.conf' created
gpg: WARNING: options in `/root/.gnupg/gpg.conf' are not yet active during this run
gpg: keyring `/root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg' created
gpg: Signature made Sun Jan 14 11:21:59 2007 AKST using DSA key ID CA6CDFB2
gpg: Can't check signature: No public key

[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade]# tar -xzf upgrade-to-6.2.tgz

[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade]# cd upgrade-to-6.2

[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade/upgrade-to-6.2]# sh freebsd-update.sh -f freebsd-update.conf -d /usr/upgrade -r 6.2-RELEASE upgrade
Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 1 mirrors found.
Fetching public key from update1.FreeBSD.org... done.
Fetching metadata signature for 6.1-RELEASE from update1.FreeBSD.org... done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Fetching 2 metadata files... done.
Inspecting system... done.

The following components of FreeBSD seem to be installed:
kernel/generic src/sys world/base world/dict world/doc world/info
world/manpages world/proflibs

The following components of FreeBSD do not seem to be installed:
kernel/smp src/base src/bin src/contrib src/crypto src/etc src/games
src/gnu src/include src/krb5 src/lib src/libexec src/release src/rescue
src/sbin src/secure src/share src/tools src/ubin src/usbin
world/catpages world/games

Does this look reasonable (y/n)? y

Fetching metadata signature for 6.2-RELEASE from update1.FreeBSD.org... done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Fetching 1 metadata patches. done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 1 metadata files... done.
Inspecting system... done.
Preparing to download files... done.
Fetching 3734 patches.....10....20....30....40....50....60....70....80....90....100....110....120....130....140....150....160....170....180....190....200....210....220....230....240....250....260....270....280....290....300....310....320....330....340....350....360....370....380....390....400....410....420....430....440....450....460....470....480....490....500....510....520....530....540....550....560....570....580....590....600....610....620....630....640....650....660....670....680....690....700....710....720....730....740....750....760....770....780....790....800....810....820....830....840....850....860....870....880....890....900....910....920....930....940....950....960....970....980....990....1000....1010....1020....1030....1040....1050....1060....1070....1080....1090....1100....1110....1120....1130....1140....1150....1160....1170....1180....1190....1200....1210....1220....1230....1240....1250....1260....1270....1280....1290....1300....1310....1320....1330....1340....1350....1360....1370....1380....1390....1400....1410....1420....1430....1440....1450....1460....1470....1480....1490....1500....1510....1520....1530....1540....1550....1560....1570....1580....1590....1600....1610....1620....1630....1640....1650....1660....1670....1680....1690....1700....1710....1720....1730....1740....1750....1760....1770....1780....1790....1800....1810....1820....1830....1840....1850....1860....1870....1880....1890....1900....1910....1920....1930....1940....1950....1960....1970....1980....1990....2000....2010....2020....2030....2040....2050....2060....2070....2080....2090....2100....2110....2120....2130....2140....2150....2160....2170....2180....2190....2200....2210....2220....2230....2240....2250....2260....2270....2280....2290....2300....2310....2320....2330....2340....2350....2360....2370....2380....2390....2400....2410....2420....2430....2440....2450....2460....2470....2480....2490....2500....2510....2520....2530....2540....2550....2560....2570....2580....2590....2600....2610....2620....2630....2640....2650....2660....2670....2680....2690....2700....2710....2720....2730....2740....2750....2760....2770....2780....2790....2800....2810....2820....2830....2840....2850....2860....2870....2880....2890....2900....2910....2920....2930....2940....2950....2960....2970....2980....2990....3000....3010....3020....3030....3040....3050....3060....3070....3080....3090....3100....3110....3120....3130....3140....3150....3160....3170....3180....3190....3200....3210....3220....3230....3240....3250....3260....3270....3280....3290....3300....3310....3320....3330....3340....3350....3360....3370....3380....3390....3400....3410....3420....3430....3440....3450....3460....3470....3480....3490....3500....3510....3520....3530....3540....3550....3560....3570....3580....3590....3600....3610....3620....3630....3640....3650....3660....3670....3680....3690....3700....3710....3720....3730.. done.
Applying patches... done.
Fetching 5495 files... done.

The script said "Fetching 5495 files," but since it wasn't providing a progress indicator, I rigged one up in another window:

royce@heffalump$ while true; do ls -1 /usr/upgrade| wc -l; ls -lARt /usr/upgrade | head -2; sleep 1; done
   3783
total 50548
-rw-r--r--  1 root   stephb   262982 Jan 15 09:14 ac156aa7853fca9e0c739ce6e0e8691ac9a2a651653e74e69f845a9a91832ca7.gz

When it is finished, the script reports files that it cannot update, files that will be removed, files that will be added, and files that will be replaced. Make specific note of the files that cannot be updated; you will want to manually compare them with the distributed files when you're finished.

The following files are affected by updates, but no changes have
been downloaded because the files have been modified locally:
/etc/devd.conf
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf
/etc/mail/submit.cf

The following files will be removed as part of updating to 6.2-RELEASE-p0:
/etc/periodic/weekly/120.clean-kvmdb
/usr/include/c++/3.4/ext/demangle.h
/usr/lib/libpcap.so.4
/usr/lib/libpthread.so.2
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/building-products/b378.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/wp-toolbox/x32.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig-nodes.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mac-examplehttpd.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mac-labelingpolicies.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-bind9.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/LEGALNOTICE.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/c1038.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/c1189.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/c1234.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/c19.html
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/c190.html

[snip]

The following files will be added as part of updating to 6.2-RELEASE-p0:
/bin/pgrep
/bin/pkill
/boot/kernel/amdsmb.ko
/boot/kernel/geom_md.ko
/boot/kernel/if_ixgb.ko
/boot/kernel/if_stge.ko
/boot/kernel/ipmi.ko
/boot/kernel/linsysfs.ko
/boot/kernel/mfi_linux.ko
/boot/kernel/nfsmb.ko
/boot/kernel/ng_tag.ko
/boot/kernel/ppc.ko
/boot/kernel/rr232x.ko
/etc/freebsd-update.conf
/etc/rc.d/auditd
/etc/rc.d/auto_linklocal
/etc/rc.d/bridge
/etc/rc.d/bthidd
/etc/rc.d/mdconfig
/etc/rc.d/mdconfig2
/etc/rc.d/mountlate
/etc/security/audit_class

[snip]

The following files will be updated as part of updating to 6.2-RELEASE-p0:
/COPYRIGHT
/bin/[
/bin/cat
/bin/chflags
/bin/chio
/bin/chmod
/bin/cp
/bin/csh
/bin/date
/bin/dd
/bin/df
/bin/domainname
/bin/echo
/bin/ed
/bin/expr
/bin/getfacl
/bin/hostname
/bin/kenv
/bin/kill
/bin/link
/bin/ln
/bin/ls
/bin/mkdir
/bin/mv
/bin/pax
/bin/ps
/bin/pwd
/bin/rcp
/bin/realpath
/bin/red
/bin/rm
/bin/rmail

I then performed the first part of the install, which installs the new kernel and supporting files:

[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade/upgrade-to-6.2]# date
Mon Jan 15 09:32:24 AKST 2007
[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade/upgrade-to-6.2]#
[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade/upgrade-to-6.2]# sh freebsd-update.sh -f freebsd-update.conf -d /usr/upgrade install
Installing updates...
Kernel updates have been installed.  Please
reboot and run "freebsd-update.sh install" again to
finish installing updates.

I rebooted as instructed:

[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade/upgrade-to-6.2]# shutdown -r now
Shutdown NOW!
shutdown: [pid 96143]
[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade/upgrade-to-6.2]#
*** FINAL System shutdown message from royce@heffalump.prv.tycho.org ***
System going down IMMEDIATELY



System shutdown time has arrived

After reboot, note that we are running a 6.2-RELEASE kernel, but userland has
not yet been updated:

[root@heffalump ~]# uname -a
FreeBSD heffalump.prv.tycho.org 6.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE #0: Fri Jan 12 10:40:27 UTC 2007     root@dessler.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

[root@heffalump ~]# ls -la /bin/ps
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  28728 Jul  2  2006 /bin/ps

We now install the rest of the files that have been changed between 6.1-RC2 and 6.2:

[root@heffalump ~]# cd /usr/upgrade/upgrade-to-6.2

[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade/upgrade-to-6.2]# sh freebsd-update.sh -f freebsd-update.conf -d /usr/upgrade install
Installing updates... done.

[root@heffalump /usr/upgrade/upgrade-to-6.2]# date
Mon Jan 15 09:45:17 AKST 2007

Another reboot, and now our kernel and userland match:

royce@heffalump$ uname -a

FreeBSD heffalump.prv.tycho.org 6.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE #0: Fri Jan 12 10:40:27 UTC 2007     root@dessler.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

royce@heffalump$ ls -la /bin/ls
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  23444 Jan 15 09:37 /bin/ls

Once my download of ISO for disc1 is complete, I'll look at the three straggling files (/etc/devd.conf,/etc/mail/sendmail.cf, and /etc/mail/submit.cf) and merge any changes as appropriate.

24 hours of infamy

I'm the SETI@home User of the Day for Wednesday, February 15th, 2006!
My profile will surely generate an international license-plate-collecting craze.

Internet Groping Considered Harmful

I love it when two of my interests collide. In this case, it's three of them: computing, etymology ... and righteous indignation.

Computer word origins fascinate me. Usually, ferreting out the various etymologies is a positive experience -- like when I found out that DEL is ASCII 127 because punching out all of the bit positions is the only "final" state of each character, and therefore the only way to delete. On more than one occasion, I've gotten lost in Eric S. Raymond's Jargon File for hours, digging up the stories behind words like kludge, crash, wedged and GECOS. This particular quest, though, sent me on a side trip that "... has as much sex appeal as a road accident." (with apologies to Douglas Adams)

Multiple experts on networking -- even Cisco -- claim that ping got its name as an acronym for "Packet InterNet Groper." This always sounded fishy to me: a little hard to say, a little cheesy ... just not very appealing.

It turns out that ping was actually named after the sound of sonar by its late author, Michael Muuss. The "Packet InterNet Groper" acronym is actually a backronym that was probably coined by David Mills.

Michael's page about ping is a fascinating read (and you can even get the original source code) ... and the real explanation is sooooo much more elegant than all of this pawing around in the dark. Every time I see some web site touting the Groping Theory, I long for megaphone the size of New Jersey into which I would yell "COME OOONNNN, PEOPLE!!!" (I may be channeling for Lynne Truss just a tad).

So spread the word! Ask your geek friends what "ping" stands for, and gently steer them in the right direction. Michael's own description says it best:

I named it after the sound that a sonar makes, inspired by the whole principle of echo-location. In college I'd done a lot of modeling of sonar and radar systems, so the "Cyberspace" analogy seemed very apt. It's exactly the same paradigm applied to a new problem domain: ping uses timed IP/ICMP ECHO_REQUEST and ECHO_REPLY packets to probe the "distance" to the target machine.

Thank you, Michael! I don't know if you were ever a gamer, but wherever you are now, I hope that you're always guaranteed the lowest ping times at St. Peter's LAN parties.

Sith or Without You

Well, it could have been worse. Some of the love-interest acting wasn't hot ... but it was better than Episode II. And a lot of the action was pretty good.

I did feel as though they tried to cram a lot of plot wrap-up into the last few minutes of the film. It's the same feeling that I get at the end of some sci-fi and fantasy novels -- as though someone ran up against a deadline. But then again, the epic scope of it all almost needed this kind of wrap-up.

You won't be stunned ... but you probably won't be disappointed.

The plot thickens

Back in October, I posted to my LiveJournal blog about the book-plot potential of mind-enhancing drugs, including brainstorming about how to detect that public figures are using them. (Note that I've moved my active blogging here to Blogger).

Yesterday, Stephanie pointed out an article on this very subject (originally from The Los Angeles Times, cited here in The Ledger)

As the article says:

"In my mind, it [modafinil] may be the first real smart drug," Sahakian said. "A lot of people will probably take modafinil. I suspect they do already."

The age of cosmetic neurology is upon us. Let the made-for-TV movies begin. :)

Future focus

In order to preserve eyesight or to keep eye muscles in proper shape, we're supposed to occasionally focus out the window or on other faraway objects. It's difficult for geeks like myself to remember to do this.

Why should we have to? Why not have the technology solve the problem for us? Why not make the display data itself require us to change focus?

At first, it could be as simple as an "eyesaver" that keeps track of our active usage and makes one of those stereograms pop up when we've been focused too long. (There are already other examples of this approach: third-party software packages that remind you to take a break after typing for X minutes or after Y keystrokes. )

Later, when 3D computer displays become feasible, it would be trivial to present different data objects as being at different -- or even changing -- distances. Even those of us who can't see those stereograms will be saved from having our eyes fall out. :)

We may find that 3D arrangement of data will have other benefits that we haven't thought of. Zooming in and out will have a whole new meaning. And as one of those kids who can't play FPSes, I'll get dizzy trying to use Excel 2010. :)

Wordsworthy

I've notice a recent upsurge in the use of -worthy as a superlative suffix. A local radio station - The Buzz - refers to music as being "buzzworthy". Too many additional examples to even mention here. (And how the heck do you Google for words with particular suffixes? Anyone heard of Google working in a substring search? But that's for another time ...)

I believe that this is a direct result of the popularity of Seinfeld and the word "spongeworthy": from brainyencyclopedia.com:

spongeworthy - that a potential sexual partner is particularly attractive; in the original episodes, being "spongeworthy" meant Elaine was willing to use one of her limited supply of (no longer produced) contraceptive sponges with this person.

I'd love to be able to trace the development of word usage using daily Google statistics -- but most of what I'm interested in (other than entirely new phrases like "jump the shark") are trends in things like punctuation and usage that are difficult to Google.

Of course, every time I think "Hmm, Google would be cooler if ...", they've usually got it on Google Labs before I can finish the sentence. :)

The Future of Social Networking?

Some of the new social-networking crop (Friendster, Tribe, Orkut) are a superset of the dating standbys (match.com, eHarmony.com, etc.). The technologies seem to be all collectively wanting to converge towards something that fluidly combines the best features of IRC, email, personal home pages, IM, match.com, blogging, and those Japanese devices that beep when you get close to someone who shares your interests.

What will this magical PSA (Personal Social Assistant) look like? As it sits today, all of these sources make me want to write an aggregating front end to replicate similar data to its various sources -- sort of like Trillian on uber-steroids. With a standardized XML-ish format, perhaps something RSS-like ("Real Simple Socializing"?)

Now if I could only get my PSA subcutaneously implanted and automatically route stills of approaching people to facial recognition software so that their name appears on my heads-up sunglasses ... :)

On the Use of the Apostrophe

In my observation of apostrophe use, I've finally hit upon the new rule:

If the basic word doesn't come with an S, use an apostrophe to set it off.

I believe that more and more of the "uneducated" appear to be gravitating towards this for a reason. It is in direct response to the relatively new crop of words for which it is hard to tell how to derive their possessive or plural forms. The two big drives for this are responses to foreign words, acronym-like words, and a tendency to print signs and other text in all-caps.

How do you pluralize "VCR"? OK, how about "TiVo"? What about "MTrSs"?

What? You've never seen the acronym "MTrSs" before? Is it plural or not? Can't tell, can you? What's a great way to be able to immediately tell what part of the word is the base, and what part is the pluralness or possessiveness? How about "MTrSs's" ?

Let's try a different one. You're familiar with burritos, the Greek god Thanatos, Cheerios, and potatoes. Let's stipulate the existence of an entirely unfamiliar word: "polgos". If you see this word without context, is it singular or plural? It's impossible to tell. If you see it as "polgo's", you automatically know. (Of course, I'm also seeing things like "Thanato's", which is an entirely different story ...)

In other words, it's now becoming easier to tell from context whether or not the word is possessive versus plural than it is to tell whether or not it came with an S.

Unfortunately, this means that some information is lost. If you're driving down the road and you see a sign that says "CARLOS RESTAURANT", does it mean:

• Carlos Restaurant


• Carlos' Restaurant


• Carlo's Restaurant
  

The answer is that it's starting to not matter, even though I would prefer it to be otherwise. I'm not sure how the new rule will develop to handle this type of word.

Now that I get it, apostrophe misuse isn't giving me a stroke every time I see it. What we're seeing is just a sign (pun intended) of people trying to grapple with changing linguistic needs. Calming down now. :)