bodywork

So I'm getting out of my car last night and just as I'm slamming my car door, my phone slips. It manages to fall between the car door and the door frame, just in time for the door to close. I hear a *crunch*. Well I get bad service where the pod is located, so I figure why not try to switch from TDMA to GSM, It's not like the cell phone companies are expanding the TDMA networks anyway. So I can either buy a new phone, or process it as a relocation and get a discount. Being that I am out of work, discounts are good. So $150 later I have a spiffy new flip-phone and a shiny new number. (256) 566-5866. I will try and contact as many people as I can, but I have to start with *EVERY DAMN JOB SITE ON THE WEB* But I'll rant about them a little bit later. Keep in mind that I probably don't have your number If I don't call you once a week, as all of that information is in my dead phone.

Well, in my own little personal hell, that is. I called the mechanic to see what the status is on Le Charget . I put in in the shop on Feb 25th, so I am happy to hear that it's ready to go. I'm not so happy to hear that one of the mechanics wrecked it into something. So I get a ride (3 hours) down to Montgomery. Now three hours doesn't seem like a long time, but when all you can think about is how bad your car has been wrecked, it's an eternity. So I get there and the damage is pretty damn bad and I am not a happy camper. I need to know how much the damage is so I drive to get a damage appraisal. Here's an interesting fact: Most body shops will not even talk to you if you have a vintage car. Who knew? The third body shop I tried directed me to a shop that specializes in classic muscle-cars. I run out of gas on my way to this shop. Now it's important to note that the car had *at least* a half tank of gas when I brought it in to the shop. I was in the mechanized infantry for 4 years and am permanently mentally scarred to the point of being paranoid when it comes to running out of "class 3". As a result, I never have less than a half-tank of gas. I also feel it is important to note that there is a $21 GAS itemization on my bill. This means they went through *at least* 25 gallons of gasoline while my car was in their possession. That could be another rant. I "top the car off", and the paranoia subsides. I make my way to the only place in town where I can get a quote. $1,759.50 + $325 for the drivers-side floor carpet the mechanics tore. The chrome on the bumper has a groove in it so it needs re-chromed or replaced. The pictures tell the rest of the story. Now on the way back to the mechanic's shop, I notice my amp meter is pegged, that means it's pushing more than 40 AMPs, not volts, AMPs. Now I can run everything in my pod on 30 AMPs if that is any indication of the severity of the problem. And the driver's side window will not go down. This is important too, because I had brought the car to the shop, four months ago, to have the near-melted wiring harness replaced, and to get the windows working. So It took them four months and a little over $2000 to not fix my car, and wreck it, *twice*. But I'm not bitter. So I have to leave the car there, because it's if it ran 40+ amps for the entire 3 hour trip home, I would die in a firey explosion. That's not high on my TODO list. But if this keeps up, I might raise it a few pegs. So Larry and I will be going down next week with the trailer, so we can bring the charger back in it's natural state, on the bed of a trailer in tow.

I took some photos of the pod, It still needs some work but I'm pretty much living in it now. I plan to lock down the computers, so they will not move during transit, but other than that It's ready to move. So should I find work in anywhere I can be moved and set up in about 48 hours. The computers are operational, but I'm currently leeching broadband from the parents. It's Starband and as a UNIX guy, who spends most of his time in a remote shell, I must say the latency is unbearable. There is up to three seconds of lag between keystrokes. So I type it blind and backspace when there is an error. It's tedious. If is wasn't for openwebmail, I'd have to stop using email, pine is my primary client and it's unusable in a remote shell.

Well, I've got the public content back up. The bookshelf will be down until I get work or find someone willing to host it. My UML linode has limited space and such. I'll see what I can do, to get it back up, though looking for work is my priority right now. I'm going to try to get some pod pictures up this weekend, if anyone cares. Mostly they will be provided to answer the "How can you live in a pod?" questions and the like.

Due to finiancial situation at my previous place of employment, I am no longer employed. It will take me a litte bit to get the content off of the old site, what with moving out of Montgomery and all. The server previously serving this site is powered down and in storage. I spend most of my day looking for work, and the weekends rennovating the pod. If anyone knows someone in need of a systems administrator who pretty much eats, breathes and sleeps for this computer stuff, pass them along my resume Have pod, will travel. Thanks.

I was rousted out of bed at 5:30 this morning by the chirping of computer-lab crickets, every UPS in the house was beeping. I have a flashlight that I keep right next to my bed in the event of a power outage. I realized at this point that I had moved my flashlight so that I could do see into a computer in the living room, grrr. So I look for my lighter, a zippo I carry because I'm comforted by the fact that I can make fire, I guess. It's out of fuel, grarrrr. So the 7 candles I have at hand are now useless. Now I normally keep my lighter fuel on the counter near the kitchen sink, but I had moved it so that I might cut some plastic with string. Don't ask. Luckily I know I have another flashlight in Le' Charget, so I head out to the garage, locate it, and it won't come on, *ugh*, so I toss the batteries and stumble around the kitchen until I find some fresh ones. No joy, The bulb is bad. *rage building* So I have to grope around in the dark in my workspace using my cell phone backlight for illumination, if you can call it that, until I find my lighter fluid. I manage to locate it and promptly refill the zippo blind. Now it has plenty of fuel. It still won't light. The wick is scorched. Now I'm livid, and the UPSes are beeping like crazy. I manage to shut down most of them with ctrl-alt-del, wait for floppy light and power off. I locate my leatherman and manage to pull the wick out, and it lights. I now have candlepower. And as soon as I light the first candle, I see my flashlight. I would go back to sleep, but I'm now furious. So I drive to work, only to realize I left my driver side rear window down last night, so I get to splash in the puddle that is my floorboard all the way to the office. At least it's not Monday.

Following my current involvement in a flame war on the MALU.org mailing list I decided to type up the following for the similie impaired If I offended people on the list, then they probably needed to be offended. But religious devotion should not be a replacement for logic... Even if it is for a cause as good as linux advocacy.

PREMISE A: Any two objects that share a similar behavior or property can be said to be alike.
PREMISE B: (object one) The GPL applies itself to any code to which it it linked.
           (object two) A virus applies itself to any tissue to which it is conjoined.
           The two lines above describe *similar* behavior between two objects. 
           (not exact, explicit behavior, but similar behavior)
           The GPL and a virus share a similar behavior.

Conclusion: The two objects, The GPL and a virus can be said to be alike.
Therfore: The statement "The GPL is like a virus." is correct.

Neither consent, desire, nor the properties of the LGPL, Apache, or any other Non-GPLed license nor pro-opensource ideals have any effect on the premises or logic above. Note, that usage of a similie does not mean that the GPL is a virus, just that is shares a property or behavior with one. If one of the premises above is incorrect, by all means, let me know. Hell, I'll even post and addendum right here. But don't email me if you cannot refute a premise above. Telling me how great the GPL is doesn't effect the logic above. I'm a big fan of the GPL. I use Linux on 7 of my 8 computers including my primary workstation. But I am also capable of emotional detachment on this topic, which allows me to analyse the facts. Sad to say this is not true for some of the people on the list.

Derek and I have discussed this more since the flamewar. The conclusion we've come to is that while it is true that the GPL can be said to behave like a virus, It is not the most apt analogy, and the negative stigma to the word 'virus' makes the statement inflamitory. it is just as apt (if not more so, depending on your point of view) to say, "The GPL is like Hershey's syrup swirling about in the delicious creamy milk that is your code." But both statements have a bias.

Well I'm finally moving over to the new system. Basically a bunch of home grown mod_perl scripts as slashcode has become so bloated as to be useless. It's too bad, I really liked the look and feel of slashdot, but I felt I needed to get away from it. So expect everything to be broken for the next couple of weeks as I get organized. I don't have a lot of free time to migrate the functions, so I'll be doing it when I can. While the migration is going on, the old (and undoubtably broken) site will be available at: http://www.jameswhite.org:8888 *note: this server will be going up and down*