My Little Underground

Computer Monitor

2009-01-25T10:05:00.000-08:00

I'd like to move away from this Goodwill-procured 17" CRT monitor and onto something larger in screen size and smaller in footprint depth and heft. I will first need a new video card (GeForce 9800 or GTX 260) but after that happens, I will be looking at monitors. The monitor world is changing rapidly right now and new technologies are being utilized. I am hoping to buy one before the end of 2009.

Cost: $650 maximum
Display Type: S-PVA (?)
Size: 24"
HDMI with HDCP support
LED-backlighting (?)
Stand not that important, since I plan to buy an Ergotron arm at some point.

Suggestions:

Dell 2408WFP - $689 from Dell
HP LP2475W - $610 on Newegg

The Fall of Rome : Bacteria

2008-06-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

Previous Entries: 1 - Introduction

I do not hold to Ray Kurzweil's technological utopianism. In fact, I don't think things are going to get much better. Sure, we'll have flashier cell phones, smaller computers and more GM food but diseases are going to increase at a faster rate than medicine can fight them for the bare fact that the medical industry is fighting them. Anti-biotics were the miracle cure and are now feature prominently in every restroom, kitchen and clinic in America. Anti-biotics kill "germs" but "germs" is a mystery term for a superstition that things you can't see are bad for you. Yes, a superstition. I am not going to tell you that bacteria and viruses don't exist, that's not my point.

Think about this: 10% of your body mass[1] is not you -- cells that do not carry your DNA, they are independent bacteria in a symbiotic relationship. Without these bacteria, we cannot survive. Yet anti-bacterial agents are everywhere, supposing that killing all bacteria might hit the few which could be negative for human health. But we don't really kill all bacteria with anti-bacterial soaps and such, we kill the weak ones and it's usually the stronger ones that are dangerous, it's just the number of benign or helpful bacteria which the bad ones under control. With these out of the way, strong, dangerous bacteria can flourish. More people get sick and they get sicker than they would have because their immune systems (which include bacteria) are weakened due to the use of anti-biotics. Yet people keep buying consumer anti-biotics.

Not only that, but bacteria are wonderful examples of evolution. They quickly adapt and more resilient strains are formed. Anti-biotics are not only hurting us but helping bad bacteria evolve to be stronger. As medical science attempts to find ways to kill the bacteria we have, they are pushing bacteria to be hardier and hardier. The predator actually makes his prey stronger by culling the weak.

Actually, the primary source of anti-biotics is not through soaps and cleaners but through animal farming. Due to the massively increased strain on animals in industrial farms, disease is rampant. Thus heavy doses of anti-biotics are given to cattle, chickens and other animals universally (without regard for the individual) which makes it's way into our bodies through meat and dairy products. Chemical run-off is also causing huge problems in the water supply in certain areas. Organic farms shun these artificial immune systems and separate the animals into reasonable distances, opting to produce less per acre for the sake of the health of the animal and of the consumer. Buy organic for your health.

Pasteurization kills bacteria -- all bacteria. Lois Pasteur actually invented the process for the wine making industry, so they could kill the natural bacteria and use cultured bacteria of a known quantity and quality instead. This was also used as a solution before the invention of anti-biotics of how to deal with the increased disease inherent in industrialized farming. Milk was pasteurized to kill pathogens in it from diseased animals. The problem with this is that it also eliminates protective, benign bacteria and is now a "blank slate" for any number of different bacterias, some of them pathogenic and some of them just gross. For a number of reasons, many local US government and other countries have banned the sale of non-Pasteurized milk. Some people are coupling with dairy farmers to secretly buy raw milk (my grandma used to when my mom was younger) due to excessive government regulations which are actually hurting people. In some areas (such as my town) raw milk is not prohibited and sells in the local organic food-coop and elsewhere. If you consume dairy products, try to make sure they are raw.[3]

The US Government is even listening!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee voted unanimously on October 20, 2005 that there was a lack of evidence supporting the benefit of consumer products including handwashes, bodywashes, etc. containing antibacterial additives over similar products not containing antibacterial additives.

People survived for thousands and thousands of years without Pasteurization or anti-biotics. Many health problems are now caused by these "solutions". Traditional food is best.

[1] - Dry body weight. Considering that the human body is at least 60% water, this means at least 4% of normal body weight is bacteria. E.g. a fit adult man weighing 150lbs has at least 6lbs of bacteria in their system.

[2] - CDC Contact FAQ

[3] - Response to CDC and FDA press releases warning about "dangers" of consuming raw milk

The Fall of Rome : Introduction

2008-06-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

This begins a series of posts which relate to the fall of our modern Roman empire, the United States. The US's allies and dependents will also be severely effected. For example, if the US economy crashed today, what would China do since they are an export economy, largely to the US and other "first world" nations? Thus with the US's crash, China would crash and the effect would be severely felt around the world.

We are entering a new Dark Ages.

Nobody thought Rome would perish. It was the backbone of western civilization, but empires inevitably come and go. When the Western Roman Empire declined and fell, from the 300s to 400s, it threw the European world into darkness. Culture almost disappeared, no longer could Rome be depended on for trade and food sources, peoples had to find their way back to their local roots and learn to survive without her.

The United States will collapse. We are not the thousand year empire, we will probably crash before 250 years is up. Right now, we are beginning to feel the effects of high oil prices. Gasoline prices are over $4.00 and will likely hit $4.50 / gallon in a couple months. Food prices are skyrocketing as a result, small businesses are folding. Along with the mortgage crisis, these are hints that the empire is not as stable as we supposed it was (our memories are notoriously short). Ways to mediate this crisis are the problem of the next president but it will inevitably progress harsher and harsher.

So what we need to do is to insulate ourselves from this problem. This means keeping a buffer of food so that our food costs are evened out (and cheapened!) and, in case of a severe famine, we can survive until we can get our own food production (also an ideal). This is my series on what is going wrong with America and the rest of the "modern world" and what I am doing and what you can do to both fight it and save yourself from it's inevitable crash.

When it crashes, many thousands of people will die and chaos will ensue. We need to band together and strengthen our local communities in order to provide for our own needs. May God have mercy on us.

I do not know if this end of the global empire is going to be the end of the world, it will certainly be the end of the world as we know it. God has His own timings. However, know that the end of the world and Christ's triumphant return will happen so be prepared.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; ' And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: ' For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
-- Rev 6:15-17 (KJV)

... and it was good.

2008-03-14T17:43:00.000-07:00

Posted here

I grew up surrounded by Young Earth Creationists. As a kid, I read the anti-Darwinist books. Most Creationism is anti-Darwinist instead of positive ~ errors, hoaxes, flaws in evolutionary science means that evolution does not happen and thus the Bible is true and Yahweh created the world much as it is today 6,000 years ago.

Well, here's the deal ~ I'm still Christian. But I no longer see the conflict. What you have here are really two people with different sources of information. You hear Dawkins and other modernists railing against pre-modernists. But from a post-modernist perspective there is no conflict ~ they can both be right.

I will agree that most scientific evidence supports an old earth and biological evolution. I will also agree that the Bible says God created the world in six days. The Hindus say it's all a dream. The Norse say we're under the skull of a giant.

I happen to adhere to the Christian worldview. But I do see value in other systems, including science. Science's creation myth is the same as anybody else's.

The Buddha replied to a question about our origins with a famous parable of the man shot with an arrow and taken to the doctor's. "But before you do anything," he said, "I want to know about the arrow, what kind of wood is it? Who made it? What is his family like?" The man died because he asked too many questions. What matters is not where we come from but where we're going.

New Keyboard

2008-02-10T15:49:00.000-08:00

I had the same keyboard for many years from my 486 through a couple years ago. However, it started spazzing out, probably after too many things had been spilled on it. As a cheap stop-gap, I plopped down $10 for a new one instead of just getting one from the Goodwill (I don't remember why).

Today, after 2 years of the "temporary stop-gap", I finally bought a new keyboard. I had been holding out for a famed IBM Model-M. However, today I hit it lucky. I stopped by the ReStore after church and there were a couple keyboards. One was logo'ed by a local computer company (which must have closed or moved, I don't recognize the name and the address is now a sporting goods store...). It's a Win-95 keyboard so it's not terribly old. However, I flipped it over and it actually had a real brand on it! It's a KEY TRONIC!!! How lucky is that? I paid $4 for a KeyTronic E03601QLPS2-C. Googling shows prices anywhere from $25 to nearly $100. It's nice...

I finally have a keyboard that feels solid instead of something that would warp if you twisted it. It's actually quieter though, the old one had a cheap loud click to it, whereas this has a nice solid muffled sound. It may be still a membrane keyboard (my long-lasting one had plastic switches) but it's a beautiful thing to have a solid, full-travelling keyboard again!

Caucusing

2008-02-10T00:49:00.000-08:00

I attended the local Democratic caucus today. Although I'm rather undecided, I have come to the conclusion that I just don't like Hillary. There are a few specific issues with both candidates but a lot of it's personality. Although having either a woman or a black man in office marks a significant turning point in the American presidency, I feel that Hillary has been more committed to the establishment in the past few years as senator. In contrast, I also feel that Obama is more able to bring a voice from the people to Washington. Sure that's fuzzy but I think personality matters more than ideals in this case because the President is really only able to do so much. Congress currently has a 22% approval rating, something tells me they might get stirred up and more Democrats in office at the next election. But we'll see.

So no Hillary supporters convinced me and I, like 90% of our precinct, voted for Obama. Seriously, we had 99 people, which resulted in 10 Obama delegates and 1 Clinton delegate. I volunteered to be one of the delegates so on April 5th, I am going to the County convention.

At the county convention, I will also be able to vote on the county platform. In order to be part of that process, I volunteered for the Platform Committee which will meet in two weeks. The LGBT part of county platform is weak, especially compared to the very Progressive ideals in other sections. It is almost as though no gay people actually were part of making it. Today, we brainstormed more ideas including support for a fully-inclusive ENDA (and local variations), expanding domestic partnership rights/benefits, HIV/AIDS eduction, trans prisoners, and the aging LGBT population. I think it's a good start. I also have some ideas for talking about agriculture and the environment.

Yay! I feel empowered!

Monsanto Tries to Force-Feed Consumers rBGH

2008-02-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

(From my local food co-op paper)

The good news is that a critical mass of dairies and supermarket chains are banning Monsanto's Bovine Growth Hormone, bowing to consumer pressure. The genetically engineered cow hormone is banned in most industrialized nations, due to its negative health impacts on cows and cancer risks to humans, but Monsanto, the manufacturer of the drug, is apparently still determined to force-feed rBGH to U.S. consumers.

Under pressure from Monsanto, the notoriously pro-agribusiness Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) has recently announced new regulations outlawing the labeling of dairy products as rBGH-free. The twisted rationale for the ruling is that truthfully labeling dairy products as rBGH-free is "making it hard for consumers to make informed decisions." In other words allowing consumers freedom of choice is bad for Monsanto's profits, and the profits of Pennsylvania's factory-style dairy feed-lots who continue to inject their animals with the drug. PDA listed 16 companties that were required to remove rBGH-free labels by December 31, 2007. Monsanto is also working to pass similar anti-consumer laws in other states. The Organic Consumer Association plans to join their allies to stop this latest episode of biotech bullying.

For more information, see www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_7941.cfm

From Zoe: Please make sure you know where your food comes from. Stick to organic foods only and contemplate going partially (ovo-lacto) or fully vegetarian (Vegan). Animal farming, particularly industrial animal farming, is hurting our planet and our health.

Update: Apparently, due to massive public outcry, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Agriculture has withstood Monsanto and made regulations for allowing dairies to label their milk as being produced without genetically-engineered hormones [story].

Dennis Kucinich

2008-02-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

As counterpoint to my previous post on Ron Paul, I present Congressman Dennis Kucinich. He dropped out of the presidential race early this time but the important part is what he does while he's in the office he already holds, not his single-digit presidential campaigns. However, I tabled for Dennis in 2004 and stand by that. There are few people I would support more for the President of the United States of America.

Truly Peaceful: Now that we've realized that the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are a mess and that we can't really control the direction of another country easily, anti-war sentiment has become more popular. In contrast, Kucinich voted against going to war and against renewing funding for the war. He would support replacing the Department of Defense (formerly, the War Department) with the Department of Peace, dedicated to finding peaceful solutions instead of military buildup. He supports nuclear disarmament. He is a strong supporter of gun control and has proposed legislation to ban handguns.
Thoughtfully Pro-Choice: Dennis has held a pretty staunchly anti-choice voting position in the past. However, Bush's push towards a full-on ban and criminalization has pushed Dennis to reconsider his position. Through much thought and soul-searching, he has decided that it is more valuable to keep abortion a legal option for women. I like this much better than knee-jerk pro-choice Democrats.
Equal Rights: Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate to support full equal marriage rights for same-sex couples instead of mealy seperate-and-unequal "civil unions". He also voted against the PATRIOT ACT (which I have also worked against).
Government-Sponsored Murder: He is a strong opponent of the death penalty and has proposed legislation to ban it on a federal level.
Drugs: Dennis supports lowering the drinking age to 18 in order to lessen the allure. He has supported decriminalization of marijuana and opposes the so-called "War on Drugs".
Environmental Concerns: Dennis is a true environmentalist. Not simply jumping on the bandwagon of cheap solutions like ethanol and coal (electric cars -- the primary source of electricity in America is coal). He opposes genetically modified foods. He is also a Vegan (as am I).
Universal Health Care: He is a co-sponsor of the National Health Insurance Act.
Immigration: Dennis supports promoting a clear road to legal citizenship for illegal immigrants. He was a co-sponsor of a bill to give legal status to all immigrants who have been in the country more than five years.

There are many other positions which Dennis Kucinich has actually acted upon which show him as a true Progressive. We need to understand and support some of the actions he has done in Congress.

Ron Paul

2008-02-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

I don't understand the obsession with Ron Paul. He's just a free-market libertarian Republican. The kids don't get this excited over the Libertarian Party. It's almost creepy. Not quite as creepy as the LaRouche-ites, but still disturbing. Why would I want to support a guy who champions the very ideology I have struggled against?

Free Markets: Ron Paul's "Invisible Hand" has crushed billions of people, not helped them. Lifting government restrictions only hurts more people. Remember London of the 19th century? That's free market. Unmanaged free market economy was also one cause of the Great Depression and US fiscal policy changed dramatically to try to soften the natural periodic recessions and depressions which will occur under a market economy. I am strongly opposed to capitalism, especially unrestricted capitalism.
Civil Rights?: Ron Paul claims he champions "civil rights," yet these "civil rights" are often those of corporations and the government, not individuals!
Reproductive Rights?: He is also staunchly anti-choice, whereas I do not support legal restrictions on abortion and support state and federal funding of sex education. He has worked hard against Roe v. Wade and supported the so-called "Partial Birth Abortion Ban". The government is a poor place to handle complicated, personal, moral decisions like abortion with a sweeping ban.
Government-sponsored Murder: He is pro-death penalty. He objects only on its unfair application, not its inherent evil.
Private Murder: Ron Paul strongly supports gun ownership, including automatic weapons. He believes that more weapons will help curb crime and violence rather than promote it. Yet he claims the Iraq war is un-Christian.
Civil Rights for Us?: Notably (because it directly effects me) he is anti-gay. He opposed same-sex adoption. He supported the DoMA and opposed ENDA and the hate crimes bill. He opposed Lawrence v. Texas, saying that the government has the right to tell people they can't have sex (not very Libertarian, eh?). He supports "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
Strom Thurmond 2.0?: Ron Paul he has opposed the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. He supports a border fence. He was author and supporter of several several far-right racist publications. Maybe he really is no better than Lyndon LaRouche...
Friends in Odd Places: In addition to the Lyndon LaRouche defectors, Ron Paul has also gained the support of neo-Nazi David Duke, Pat Buchanan (unsuprisingly, I was comparing them in a discussion a few nights ago), Larry Pratt, and the John Birch Society.

I have no idea why he has become so popular among young people. I live in a pretty liberal "hippie college town" and I see Ron Paul stickers all over. People are fascinated by him and they're barking up the wrong tree if they have any respect for civil rights.

Reproductive Rights

2008-02-01T09:24:00.000-08:00

I have also cared about reproductive rights since I was old enough to understand them. Watching my partner go through pregnancy only increased my belief in reproductive freedom. There’s something wrong with an administration that wants a woman to carry a fetus to term if she conceives, but will not give her permission or wherewithal to raise that child in a legal relationship with the person she loves, whom she knows will be a responsible, loving parent.

~ Dana Rudolph

Muine Thoughts

2008-01-31T22:37:00.000-08:00

I made branches off of muine trunk in SVK for my C# 3.0 lambda and addins experiments. I may possibly create a muine-experimental tree completely separate from the Gnome SVN, possibly in Google Code (or, I could just get a new screenname for svn.gnome.org).

Muine was popular back in 2004-2005, when Mono was still brand new and Muine was one of few examples of real programs written in Gtk#. Now we have the huge Banshee project and Muine has rather stagnated and slipped into the shadows. However, there's something to be said about a smaller program that doesn't try to do everything (although we still have plugins, through the new and old interfaces). I also prefer the simple playlist-oriented GUI of Muine over the more iTunes-like projects such as Rythmbox and Banshee. If anyone wants to suggest a name other than muine-experimental or muine-zoe, feel free. We could totally fork instead. Perhaps I can use the "Calliope" name I was throwing around a few months ago.

Some Muine Thoughts:

C# 3.0 lambda expressions for short callbacks/delegates
Don't do any real work (dozens of lines) in a callback or delegate, call another method instead.
Eliminate all pointer passing within Muine. I did a bunch a couple years ago, it's really a mess in there.
Use TagLib# to process metadata.
Remove Gnome dependency
Don't use plain Berkley DB, at least use SQLite. LINQ can make it a beautiful thing. Do all database stuff in managed code.
Eliminate all C code that isn't strictly needed (Nobody's successfully tackled a Gst# binding yet so we at least need that).
Make music playing independent. We can still distribute it in the tree but make it a totally independent library with C# binding. Eliminate all P/Invokes.
Move to a new build system, possibly NAnt.
Rework the whole structure. The Global control center thing just has always grated on me.
Tackle PlaylistWindow.cs
Implement a new Addins library.
Port existing plugins to the Addins framework (there are only a handful, consider hosting them too).
Remove the old plugin framework.
Move some currently built-in functionality to plugins (e.g. DBus, Amazon, MusicBrainz).
Hack Diebold, elect Dennis Kucinich.
Combine the notion of "Song" and "Album" in the GUI, some sort of tree drop-down within the list is what we've talked about in the past. This goes for both the "Add{Song,Album}" dialog and the main playlist.
Show the album name in the main window.
Make the playlist hideable (I had a patch to do this before, Jorn didn't like the idea but other people have expressed an interest in it).
Turn the buttons into a real toolbar (the only question is what to do with the volume).
Make a slider in the main window instead of the Skip To dialog.
Anything else you can think of

Muine has the potential to be a great piece of software. It just needs some love!

Muine Addins

2008-01-31T21:03:00.000-08:00

I spent today implementing Addins in Muine. We already had our own plugin framework. However, it's awkward and requires a lot of mess in the main code. The main code (particularly PlaylistWindow.cs) implements an interface in a library which is shared with the plugins (Muine -> PluginLib <- Plugin).

The Mono.Addins framework requires little in the way of code in the main project. It also has an A -> B <- C model similar to the PluginLib but it is much more advanced. Instead of overriding methods in the main program, you just define "Extension Points" within the program where plugins can jump in. This does, however, require XML descriptions in for the main program and each addin. However, that's fine as it means addins also get a name and a description and such instead of just being nameless assemblies. Also, more than one plugin can attach at a point. So if ToolbarButtons was a point, several addins could add buttons there.

It didn't take much to implement a simple "Hello, World" plugin for Muine. However, 90% of my time was spent wrestling with autotools... God, I hate autotools! So, how about we do what I said a few years ago and split the audio playing, database, C portion (libmuine) into it's own tree with its own build-system. libmuine can use autotools, configure, make, all that. That would mean Muine could shift to NAnt. Unless someone has a favorite build-system they would like to promote. I loathe trying to program in XML, that's why I created a series of XSLT templates called AutoNant to ease the pain. I want to be rid of the autotools/make mess!

The Wisdom of Crowds

2008-01-30T21:10:00.000-08:00

I was looking for information on the Microsoft project Acropolis. Wikipedia returned a general article on acropolises around the world (particularly the one in Athens, of course).

The first sentence on the page had half a link "For the [[cities which grew up on the surrounding lower ground." Actually, it's not just half a link, it's half a sentence.

A couple paragraphs down, we had this graffiti gem:

The term ''acropolis'' is also used to describe the central complex of overlapping structures, such as plazas and pyramids, in many [[Maya civilization|Mayan]] cities, including [[Tikal]] and [[Copán]].the acopolis was a stupied place the citys were brown.

Yes... the acopolis was a stupied place the citys were brown. Now, three spelling mistakes in a single short sentence might be construed as "stupied" but at least the author's city isn't brown, it's assumable that it is grey. As we all know, grey > brown. Yes, thank you for asserting your opinion and justifying the trustworthiness of Wikipedia.

Apparently, both the awkward intro sentence and the graffiti were the same individual. Oh, and in case you want to say that Recent Changes Patrols catch vandals, the change was made two days ago. Diff

Slimming Down

2008-01-29T03:59:00.000-08:00

tamara@nightdragon:~/My_Stuff/Computer/Programming/muine-cs3$ svk diff -r 1155 | diffstat
 About.cs          |    8 -
 Actions.cs        |  352 +++++++-----------------------------------------------
 AddAlbumWindow.cs |   52 +------
 AddSongWindow.cs  |   37 -----
 Makefile.am       |    3 
 PlaylistWindow.cs |   21 +--
 6 files changed, 74 insertions(+), 399 deletions(-)

Since we last spoke, I discovered a program called svk, which allows you to make a local copy of an SVN repository and make local commits to it and such. I am using it to fiddle with a C# 3.0 port of Muine. I was just going to make a branch on the SVN server but it's been so long since I've committed anything there, I either forgot my password or my account was disabled. I'm not even sure that I've committed anything since they switched to SVN.

So the majority of the changes are in the Actions.cs file and they look something like this:

Old

public Actions () : base ("Actions")
{
  this ["Import"].Activated += OnImport;
}

// Handlers :: OnImport
/// <summary>
///     Handler called when the Import action is activated.
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>
///     This opens the <see cref="ImportDialog" /> window.
/// </remarks>
/// <param name="o">
///     The calling object.
/// </param>
/// <param name="args">
///     The <see cref="EventArgs" />.
/// </param>
private void OnImport (object o, EventArgs args)
{
    new ImportDialog ();
}

New

this ["Import"].Activated += (o, args) => { new ImportDialog (); };

The braces are only necessary to eliminate an unwanted return value.

Hooray for lambda expressions!

(Yes, C# 2.0 anonymous delegates would have helped some but I never implemented those.)

Also, Muine is dying. I've mainly given up on it. I'm curious to see if I can fix it up though before it disappears beneath Banshee. I have put far too many hours into it that I don't want to see go to waste.

Functional Programming with C# 3.0

2008-01-28T19:13:00.000-08:00

I found a wonderful little three part series on functional programming in C# 3.0. I thought I would share. I also purchased "C# 3.0 in a Nutshell" recently. I had the first edition (for 1.0/1.1) but this is different, there is more "meat" to it but the handy reference section which listed all the main members of System.Core, which took up a good 2/3 of the first book is gone. It was much speedier than digging in Monodoc or MSDN2.

Part I
Part II
Part III (Loops are Evil)

It is well-written. There tends to be poorer quality articles widely available for very popular languages like Java, C#, VB and JavaScript compared to C, C++, Perl, Python, Ruby (well, aside from Ruby on Rails). It's sad but true.

On a side note, my UPS died. Ugh. It's only two months old. I believe the fan died and it is overheating and acting oddly. I haven't had a chance to experiment yet. Some day I will try it the DIY way (useful as a start to a bigger scale battery backup and power generation project).

Ten Reasons We're Doomed

2008-01-09T12:23:00.000-08:00

Ten Reasons We're Doomed: CES Edition

If you've been following all the CES updates on every tech blog out there because you're inbetween jobs and have no life except to lay in bed and read about shit that won't come out for another year and that you won't be able to afford, or have any desire to purchase, read this.

Back from the Dead

2007-12-04T15:14:00.001-08:00

So I started coding again, I had to clean out the cruft and get things working the way they were meant to. There are a couple of different projects I am working on at the moment. AutoNant is Public Domain and ZoeTools is GPL. The sudoku code is loosely based on code of an unknown license (for now).

The first is a set of useful utility classes calle ZoeTools. It currently has three seperate assemblies: Algorithms.DancingLinks (a Knuth DLX implementation), Objects.LinkedMatrix (a matrix which is used by the previous assembly) and Tools.Hasher (a progressive file hasher, mainly for large files). They are designed to be stable and well-tested. If useful, I encourage you to use them in your projects.

The second is a meta-build-system. I like NAnt for building .Net projects and it is much nicer to use than autotools and make. However, it is also verbose and I was finding that I had to keep copy-and-pasting boiler-plate code. Since it is XML, I figured it would be easy to set up an XSLT-based system to create .build files from a minimal description. It did turn out awkward on the backend but on the front-end, all you have to do is create a short XML .autonant file and run it throught an XSLT processor. The trade-off is that your directory structure is standardized. There are various pros and cons for this setup but I like it. It relies heavily on symlinks though and would prove difficult on file systems which don't have symlink capability or which have awkward limited systems (such as Windows' NTFS). I would only recommend trying it out on a *nix box.

My programs are all made with development versions of Boo and Mono so you may have to grab them from SVN and build them yourself. If you install into /usr/local/, you will have to run "export MONO_GAC_PREFIX=/usr/local" so it can find the assemblies.

My first cleaning task was to change all the symlinks in the build/ and external/ directories to point to lower-case versions of their names. The reason for this is that when you checkout modules from SVN, they're in lower-case so this just makes it easier.

The next step was to tell AutoNant where to find the Boo.NAnt.Tasks.dll extension library. Unfortunately, Debian chooses not to include it in its packaging of Boo. Since I use the SVN version, it's not that big of a deal but still makes for an awkward oversight. If you download that file, just place it in /usr/lib/boo/ and all should be fine. I'm not entirely sure how I made it before telling NAnt where to find the file... What I did was add a tag which will get added to your top-level .build file which contains the location for the required library. It currently is created dumbly, whether your project is in Boo or not but it not used if it does not need Boo. I'll probably fix that tomorrow. The default file location is /usr/local/lib/boo so you might have to alter that in your projects' generated .build file.

After that finally got setup, I was on my way and running... well, almost. It seems that one of Boo's "useful" modules was removed - Boo.Lang.Useful.IO.TextFile. This made it easy to read in a file without having to create a StreamReader. However, .Net 2.0 added a useful System.IO.File.ReadAllLines static method, which greatly shortens code to simply read in a small text file. The first example reads a line and prints it, continuing until no more lines can be read. The second reads in a text file into an List and then prints each item. So, the second actually processes the list twice but there are many cases in which the first method also processes it twice and so it's not so bad. For small files, I'm sure the effect is negligible.

.Net 1.1 (C#)	.Net 2.0 (C#)	.Net 2.0 (Boo)
using (StreamReader reader = File.OpenText ("test.txt")) { string input = null; while ((input = reader.ReadLine ()) != null) Console.WriteLine (input); }	foreach (string input in File.ReadAllLines ("test.txt")) Console.WriteLine (input);	for input in File.ReadAllLines ("test.txt"): print input

.Net 1.1 (C#)

.Net 2.0 (C#)

.Net 2.0 (Boo)

using (StreamReader reader = File.OpenText ("test.txt")) {
 string input = null;
 while ((input = reader.ReadLine ()) != null)
  Console.WriteLine (input);
}

foreach (string input in File.ReadAllLines ("test.txt")) 
 Console.WriteLine (input);

for input in File.ReadAllLines ("test.txt"):
 print input

If you would like to try out my programs, here's all you have to do:

svn co http://autonant.googlecode.com/svn/trunk autonant
svn co http://zoetools.googlecode.com/svn/trunk zoetools
svn co http://sudokusolver-boo.googlecode.com/svn/trunk sudokusolver-boo

[You may have to edit zoetools/ZoeTools.Algorithms.DancingLinks/default.build, zoetools/ZoeTools.Objects.LinkedMatrix/default.build, and sudokusolver-boo/default.build if your Boo.NAnt.Tasks.dll is not in /usr/local/lib/boo.]

cd sudokusolver-boo
nant
cd bin
cp ../test/sudoku.txt .
mono SudokuSolver.exe

Have fun and if you have any trouble, questions, ideas, etc, please comment!

Antec P180B Case Review

2007-11-27T10:19:00.000-08:00

(This review sucks without pictures, I'm sorry. Maybe I can borrow my roommate's camera.)

Introduction

I received my P180B case in the mail yesterday. I got it via UPS ground so I was terribly nervous but I couldn't pass up free shipping from Newegg. Luckily, there was only a small hole in the box, which didn't effect the case at all. I was worried the whole side would have been smashed in and the case dented. I got one past UPS this time...

What I was looking for in a case

I'm picky. If I'm going to spend $100-200 on a case (this was $130), I want it to be perfect. I wanted a case with a door. I rarely use my DVD drive so it's not bothersome to have to open the door and it helps quiet everything down (the noisy DVD drive is definitely muted with the door shut). I like things sleek and stylish, I had no intention of getting a flashy gaming case. I understand that mesh cools better (my PSU is meshed) but it's ugly and that's more important to me. I wanted the front ports to be on the top (the P180B has them low on the front sadly). I also wanted a nice quality case that will last me at least 5-10 years (until ATX goes out of fashion). I got most of what I wanted in the P180B.

O_O

The first thing you notice is - "it's HUGE! Is a full-tower? I thought it was a mid-tower..." Well, Antec calls it a "Super Mid Tower", which is essentially somewhere inbetween a full and a mid. UPS said it weighs 37lbs and I believe - this thing is steel and it's not going anywhere, especially when you fill it up with parts. It's big and it's black, it's not quite mirrored but it's also kinda shiny, in a black-hole sort of way. It also reminded me of a B-2 stealth bomber. It matches my monitor and UPS but I guess I'll need to paint my router then so it's not Linksys blue >.< Unfortunately, seeing as it's shiny, it also will probably be a dust-magnet.

P180B == P182

As a note, this is a revision ahead of the original P180 and essentially the same as the P182. I'm not even sure the exact differences but they're minuscule, if even present. The P180 is available in a greyish color, the P180B in black and the P182 in "gunmetal grey" or expensive "special edition mirrored". I wanted black.

Why pay $130 for a steel box?

It's not the cheapest case around. I'm used to cheap cases - they're beige, steel and plastic and come with uber-cheap no-name PSUs in them and cost $20-30. All the cases I've ever had were like that. After all, isn't a case just a big steel box? When I was young, I couldn't imagine who would pay over $100 for a box? The P180B is more than just a box, it is a box of boxes. Everything has a box - the PSU has it's own cage, there are two removable drive cages (the 5.25" slots aren't removable but the 3.5" hold 2x3 hard drives). Hell, there's even an empty plastic box attached to the middle drive cage for all your screws, pin out diagrams, software licenses, etc. One review compared it (actually the P190 full-tower) to those Russian dolls - boxes inside of boxes.

The manual, or lack thereof

There is a manual but it tells you little about assembling your case. Directions are vague (although not Engrish) and there are no pictures to guide you. There are also no diagrams for the different types of screws and there are a lot of them! I ended up looking at some other people's rigs on the Internet to solve a couple of tough issues. The lack of documentation is the worst downside to this case.

Powering the beast

Installation was not the easiest thing in the world, starting with the PSU. I have a Hiper Type-R 580W modular PSU which is about two years old. I used to never think about PSUs, they just turn AC into DC, right? You get them for nearly free with the beige el-cheapo cases, why would someone pay money for one? Well, I started having problems - I came back to town and my computer wouldn't turn on. After fiddling with it, it turned on but immediately shut down. Further twiddling resulted in a system that ran but was unstable. When I received some money for school, I picked up the PSU that was all the rage a couple years ago. I wanted a modular one and I wanted it black and sexy. So, I paid about $120 for it and my dormmates thought I was nuts (silly girls just didn't understand... that's okay, one watched the Super Bowl intently and I just don't understand that.) It's been rock-solid ever since and I love it.

The PSU is installed at the bottom of the case instead of the top but the motherboard isn't inverted so you have to be able to get the ATX power up to the top, I'm sure with some PSUs, it will be tight. Well, woe to you moreso with even longer PSUs because I barely was able to make mine fit and it took some squeezing. Having modular PSU connectors make it longer and there is a fan right there which isn't easily removable and even if I did, I'd have to get it back on (or not, I'm not running RAID 0 Raptors or anything). You could also remove that fan and put it in front of the hard drives but that would be louder.

Routing the blood

Being modular, I decided on three molex cables - one for the DVD, one for the hard drives, and one for the fans. This way, cables could stay pretty out of the way from each other. The fans are powered by molex pass-throughs instead of the tiny 3 prong fan connector. I haven't looked too closely into how to hook them up to a fan controller but I think I have mine out in the shed so I might try it later (I can also see temps then). The top and back fans have controls for Low, Medium and High on tiny switches in the back. The bottom fan lacks an accessible speed control, it's on a little switch just hanging inside so you have to open the case to get to it. I might be able to thread it through where the PSU is living but I don't want to mess with it too much more, it was a pain!

So I pushed a short and medium molex through the slot to the main part of the case and the long one I ran behind the (non-removable) motherboard tray and down through a hole in the top to my DVD drive. Another went up through one side of the divider and down through the other to reach the hard drives. I decided to link all the fans together via the pass-through connectors and placed the bundle below the PCI slots, where the water-cooling ports are. I haven't attached them to the case yet, I haven't finalized my wiring.

Braaaains!

The motherboard installation was simple and there is even a standard backplate provided (I didn't have one on this old board, it was permanently attached to the name-brand case). There were only three brass standoffs provided and I didn't have any extras. Anyway, if it was any higher off of the tray, it wouldn't have fit in the backplate. Maybe I'll feel differently later with my next motherboard.

A freight train on rails

Here is where I felt like a total newbie. I've never used drive rails before. They seemed simple enough - screw them onto your drives and slide them into the hard drive cage. So I tried that with the 5.25" external slots. You pull the plastic cover off and then twist the punched-out steel until it breaks. I screwed the rails on and tried to slide them in so that they matched the hard drives. They ran into a stopper so I moved them to the next hole, still sticks out, next hole, hmm, well the door will close but this can't be right. I tried and tried, I even popped the motherboard out to be able to try from the back but that didn't work. Grrrr... I looked online to see where other people's metal prongs latched on and I couldn't tell.

I finally had an epiphany: "Perhaps I'm doing it backwards, perhaps the metal prongs stick out the front! That would look funny, but it might work." *slide* and *click*, That does mean there is shiny silver metal visible from the front (spraypaint?) but it's right.

If you actually read the manual, it helps. "Make sure the metal portion is angled on the outside and facing forward." Ah well, whatever, it's in there now... >.<

I think I like the rail system now that I've messed with it a little. It just takes some getting used to but it's nice to not have to take off the other panel or to screw at odd angles.

Conclusion

It took me a bit of extra effort to get this case together, both because of the parts I had and because of my own ignorance. Patience is a virtue but when it's done, it looks pretty nice. I am going to rewire it when I buy my CPU/MB/RAM combo in the next couple of months and see what I can come up with.

So I've only had this case less than 24 hours so I'm not ready to put a final rating on it but I'm going with 4.5/5 for now. One mark off for no pictures in the manual (although it's in 6 different languages...) and for being difficult to work with in the PSU area. From reading other people's reviews, it's definitely a step up from the original P180 because they listened to people's criticisms and that's what is important. It's a big sucker so be aware of that, it dwarfs the mATX mini-towers that are so popular now but it's the perfect house for a watercooled, quad-core, SLI rig with 4 hard drives. Just be aware of its limitations with regards to the PSU and you're good. It really is a nice case.

(Hopefully photos soon!)

New Computer Possibilities - Part Seven

2007-11-26T00:30:00.000-08:00

Pulling up the rear-guard

So, in an earlier post, I explained how I was going to save up $700-800 and replace my computer guts (MB/CPU/RAM/GPU). Well, I haven't even got my PII up and running yet (Tuesday or Wednesday) and I'm already apprehensive ~ I used it this winter and it was doable but sometimes painful.

Instead of trying to buy lots of the latest hardware all at once, what if I just did the basics and then slowly upgraded my components as needed? Then I would be able to get a new computer sooner rather than later. Sure, I'd end up with more parts than the first plan but if it allows me to wait another six months, prices will drop on the higher-end parts and perhaps it'll end up being about the same. Additionally, I can throw the cheaper parts into an HTPC box.

Motherboard ($150): Here is where I don't want to skimp too much. It will be the backbone of my computer. I had previously been looking at flagship boards, especially from Gigabyte (no more ASUS for me...), including the new Intel X38 chipset which supports dual PCI-E x16 (P35 and earlier boards with two x16 slots castrate the second one to be electrical x4 or x8). However, in all honesty, the chances of me using dual video cards are slim. Even with a dual-monitor setup, I just need a video card with two DVI outputs and that should be able to handle it just fine. SLI is only available on nForce boards and I haven't really been looking at them much.
Current choice: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L ($90)

RAM ($100): I don't have to worry about replacing anything here when I upgrade, instead I just add more memory as needed. I'll be fine until the world moves to DDR3 (which is still stupid expensive). Fast memory is an expensive premium for little improvement - 4GB of DDR2 800 will be better than 2GB of 1066 for approximately the same cost. On the other hand, don't buy dirt-cheap memory, buy only from well-established and respected companies. RAM quality effects your whole system stability. Right now through the end of the month, Patriot, Corsair and OCZ are offering deep mail-in rebates (up to $40 - over 50%!) on NewEgg.

My last system had 512MB of RAM, which I bought for nearly $100 in 2004. Now memory is less than 1/5 of that price. Although it worked fine, last year I was looking at adding another gig. I think 2GB should be standard and it's easily obtainable. 4GB is the effective maximum for usefulness but some programs can benefit from 8GB or even more (if your board supports it).
Current choice: OCZ Platinum 2x1GB ($73 - $35 MIR = $38 until 11/30)

Video ($75): Again, the market changes rapidly here. I also have no real need for anything excessive, as I'm not trying to pull the most frames out of the latest FPS games. At most, I want to be able to watch movies and have 3D acceleration (that works well under Linux). My gaming tends more towards the RTS and (standard, not MMO) RPG genres than FPS. I want to be able to play Warcraft III and some older games. I am also interested in Oblivion but that will have to wait until I can upgrade. The 8800GT is sweet and all the rage but also $300 and I don't have a justification for that yet.

I'm looking at the GeForce 7 series right now and I see a 7200GS for $50, the 7200GS was released this year into last year's series. It's intended as an entry-level upgrade to integrated graphics but the motherboards I'm looking at don't have any graphics anyway. However, for a better card, it's not much more expensive. Gigabyte has a 7300GT for $60, which is not bad. The 8800GT is definitely my gaming card that I'll get at some point in the next few months. However, for playing a few games and watching movies and in general putting pictures on my monitor through a PCI-E slot now that AGP is dead (which is what is in my PII) it's worth it. It's not a low-profile card but it's fanless, which makes it great for movie-watching.
Current choice: Gigabyte 7300GT 256MB ($60)

Conclusion: With a total budget of $425 (closer to $300 if we take the low-end solutions), we're looking at half the price of my original plan. However, this is not nearly the killer machine the original setup would be. Whether this is acceptable remains to be determined. Upgrading would involve replacing the CPU and the video card, both of which are ~$300 purchases. Thus we are looking at spending $1000 instead of $800. In return, we are left with an extra processor and video card, which may be used in another box. I can afford this in two months so I'd be looking to buy in February, after Penryn shakes the CPU market up. Is this a good time frame to be productive in? Meaning, if I can use a midstep computer three months earlier than if I kept saving for a higher end one, is it worth it?

Perhaps this upgrade path is best: start with the E2140, buy an LCD monitor (before I move), then go back and buy a quad-core beast (saving the E2140 for another computer or selling it), upgrade to a gaming-quality video card such as the 8800GT and then add a second monitor. Going this route will provide opportunities for smaller purchases of new toys throughout the coming year or two. In the end, I might just save money by waiting around until prices fall and being content with what I have.

New Computer Possibilities - Part Six

2007-11-25T20:12:00.000-08:00

Buying a CPU (Part 2):

Digging through the bargain bin

In my previous post, I talked about the Intel quad-core Q6600 and the upcoming Q9450, due in mid-January. Both are processors on the high-end ($275-$350?) of what's realistic to pay (people who buy the EE chips are just obsessed with being first). Well, I need more than just a CPU in my computer so perhaps it's time to look at chips that cost as little as 20% of those heavyweights.

So instead of spending incredible amounts of money at one time, let's look at Intel's bargain bin. I want something which is LGA775 socket so I can keep the same motherboard when I upgrade. I'm also going to bet that a low-end offering would beat out the Athlon XP 2800+ I bought in 2004 (although I sold it so I can't test my theory). My needs are fairly unintensive ~ I just want to be able to compile, run and debug my programs quickly. My gaming needs are light, Warcraft III is about as intensive as it gets. I'm not upgrading to a gaming machine yet so I'm not worried about that, just about hopping on modern technology so I have an upgrade path sooner rather than later.

I am still going to wait until the Penryn/Wolfdale/Yorkfield release in January because I believe it will shake up the market and push prices down on the older models (that, and Christmas is coming up...). I'll look into it more in two months. However, this is what I discovered today.

I was originally looking at the E6xxx series and the Q6600 because they are multi-core (E - Dual, Q - Quad) and support VT-x (hardware virtualization). The cheapest E6xxx is the E6550 for $170. The cheapest E4xxx (no VT-x) is the E4500 for $130.

However, if I'm planning to wait a while to buy the Q6600 or the upcoming Q9450, why spend even that much money on a compromise processor? The Core 2 series has a single-core stepchild which carries the "Celeron" name. Celerons are well-known to be gimped, bottom of the barrel chips for basic computing. Well, they're also dirt cheap. A Core 2-styled Celeron 420 (*giggle*) is a mere $44 in retail packaging. It'd be easy to throw this into a HTPC box when I'm done with it and have replaced it with a $350 quad-core monster in six months or so. This way, I don't spend another $85-$125 just to compromise in the end. The Conroe-L Celerons are also low power (35W), which would be good for an HTPC (not only cheaper bills but less heat to dissipate).

On a slightly higher price-point, the "Pentium" name has been revived. These are dual-core, sub-$100 chips. There are three models currently ~ E2140/2160/2180 selling for $75/$83/$90 on Newegg. Do two cores justify twice the price? Probably, to be honest. With all the compiling and such that I do, I could use a second core. If I'm serious about buying a heavy-weight quad-core in the coming months, should I save the extra $30? I'll have to think about that.

Here is a table of some notable processors representative of different price-points:

Celeron 420	$44
Pentium Dual-Core E2140	$75
Core 2 Duo E4500	$130
Core 2 Duo E6550	$170
Core 2 Quad Q6600	$280
Core 2 Quad Q9450	$350+???

As you can see, I definitely have my range of choices, all which will work on the motherboard I have chosen. Even within those steps are smaller frequency steps for only a few dollars difference. At some point, I guess you just say "here is where I'm going to stop", otherwise you just keep saying, "but for only $15 more..." until you're broke ^-^.

In an ideal world, I'd pick up the Q9450, which seems to be the best balance between price and performance (there more expensive CPUs that I didn't list). It's a very hefty quad core with a massive 12MB of L2 cache (Nehalem will shift a lot of the L2 to L3 though) and is definitely like having four nice computers at your fingertips. On the other hand, I still want to buy a new monitor, which will probably cost around $300 as well as more storage. Of course, I do have expenses that have nothing to do with computing at all which I need to concern myself with eventually! ^-^

I think the E2140 is worth the extra $30 over the Celeron 420 but that the E4500 is not worth another $45 so that's where I should stop for now. The TDP is also something to take into consideration ~ the Celeron 420 is just 35W compared to 65W for the E2140. More energy means a higher bill and more heat, which involves more noise to blow the heat away. Still, 65W is quite minor compared to the P4, which took twice that!

New Computer Possibilities - Part Five

2007-11-24T16:40:00.001-08:00

Buying a CPU:

Playing the Waiting Game

So, I've been planning a little more. Intel's new Yorkfield processors are coming out in January. It'll probably be April before I am ready to buy my new system because I have to save up and it all needs to be done at once (CPU, MB, RAM). The budget is something like this: CPU: $300, MB: $200, RAM: $200 = Total: $700 Perhaps that's a bit steep but I want something to tie me over until Nehalem changes the game again (it will replace Core). So I want this computer to last 18-24 months with no upgrades (additions, sure, but no replacements) and considering the intensity of my computer usage, I don't think it's unreasonable.

I had been looking at the Q6600, which got brutally slashed from $851 in January to a mere $266 only six months later (and a 10W drop). The lineup for this coming January appears to understand that quad is going mainstream and maybe in 2010, eight-way cores will be common. The gigahertz race is definitely over ~ the Q6600 at 2.4GHz will beat the pants off of a P4 at 3.0GHz+ and with much less energy usage and heat.

AMD has been dead in the water lately. I've always been a fan because they were significantly cheaper and well, who doesn't want to root for the underdog? Phenom, on all accounts, has been very disappointing. The best you can say is that AMD beats the low-end Intel chips in the same price range (e.g. <$100). To me, it's not worth even buying an AMD motherboard.

So, my new choice is the Q9450. The Q9300 is being released at the same price as the slashed Q6600 ($266) but with only 6MB L2 instead of 8MB (2.4GHz -> 2.5, 1066FSB -> 1333). However, the Q9450 is only $50 more expensive and features a slight increase in frequency (2.6GHz) but more importantly 12MB of L2 cache. The bulk price is currently set to be $316.

So, I figure a $300 CPU, while expensive, is not too much to pay for 12MB L2 and four cores. There seems to be no reason to buy the Q9550 for $530 (2.8GHz). I figure when the Q9450 is released in January, it'll probably cost around $350-375 retail but in a few months maybe it will settle down under $300. On the other hand, the release of a new series of CPUs may force the Q6600 even cheaper. We will wait and see...

New Computer Possibilities - Part Four

2007-11-23T17:23:00.000-08:00

LCD Types

For those who don't know, there are three different LCD technologies. The low end is twisted nematic (TN), which are found on most monitors and essentially all laptops. One of the characteristic failings of TN panels are their limited range of vision. Tilt your screen back and it will get dark and the colors will invert. Similar things happen from odd angles. This is very annoying if you've ever tried to watch a movie on a laptop, especially with friends. The bigger the LCD, the bigger the problem because parts of your screen will be darker than others.

The mid-range solution is called PVA (Patterned Vertical Alignment). The colors are better than the TN and there is no problem with viewing angles. The trade-off is expense and a slower response time. S-PVA, or Super PVA, is an overdrive technology to speed up the display and in my understanding this is generally successful without too many problems.

The high-end are In-Plane Switching (IPS) panels. These are the replacement for the very expensive high-end CRT monitors used in graphics work. The color reproductions are very good (and pretty much everyone at this end has a colorimeter to calibrate their display too) but speed is even slower. S-IPS is the overdrive technology, similar to S-PVA. These are very expensive displays and only necessary for professional graphics and photography.

So the question becomes, do I want to pay a significant premium (another 50% on the 21.5"/22" display) for a superior display technology? Alternatively, do I want another 2.5" in exchange for a lesser technology at the same price?

When I looked at monitors in the store, the 24" ones seem the best compromise. Anything bigger (26" or 30") is just huge and very expensive. You can buy two 24" displays for the price of a 30" and I might very well do that. I will also probably eventually get an ergonomic arm to lift the display to the right level sans phone book ^-^.

Two, or even three, displays might seem like excess but the increase in productivity is well-established. If I really do start making my living off of a computer, it's something I'll definitely want. You can put documentation on one, your editor/IDE on another and, if you have a third, your testing window. This is much faster and more natural than switching desktops or, God forbid, you have Windows XP and are constrained to a single desktop where you have to swap windows in and out >.<. I use a 3x3 square of virtual desktops so that I can easily swap between tasks:

Terminal	Editor	Web
	Documentation	Chat
		Music

The empty desktops are used for temporary applications. While coding, I spend most of my time in the Editor desktop and from here, I can swap to the Terminal, Documentation or Web desktops with one keystroke.

For obvious reasons, having nine physical displays would be a bit ridiculous, it'd be like being a air traffic controller or security guard (or the dad in Lain) but it's certainly been done, like this. At some point, there are diminishing returns. I think after three, it's too much. The nice thing about three is that you can have a center with two wings rather than your center point being a bezel. Thus I could put my editor in the middle, my terminal to the left and the web to the right, or whatever. I could still have other virtual desktops for different tasks.

New Computer Possibilities - Part Three

2007-11-23T17:20:00.000-08:00

[ Part One | Part Two ]

So, $450 later and I still have a PII... what happened? ^-^ Well, I wanted to get this box up and running ASAP and leave upgrading for later. I'm looking at spending another $1500 before I'm done so this will be a hefty project.

HDD (storage): Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA (probably several). The terabyte drives are going for approximately $50 over two 500GB drives. Hopefully that will disappear soon. I'm moving all my movies from CD-R/DVD-R to HDD to save physical space. I estimated last year that I have around 2-3TB in movies so it'll take a while to buy that storage and to keep a backup. With the emergence of eSATA, I will likely buy an external dock so that they can be kept offline when not in use (no use spinning drives, I'm not using).

Motherboard: Probably one of the new Gigabyte X38 boards.

CPU: The price-slashed Core 2 Q6600 - quad-core processing power for only $270! It would make video conversion and compiling effortless and beautiful.

RAM: If I was buying right now, I'd just go for 2GB but 4GB is not out of the question and will likely be my choice in six months. I was happy with the mid-range OCZ but honestly any decent DDR2 RAM is okay (Patriot, Corsair, OCZ, etc). I wonder how long it will take DDR3 RAM to outperform DDR2 and to be cheap enough for the mainstream. I'm not worried about it at this point, DDR2 won't disappear for a while.

Video: The recently released 8800GT is all the rage and for good reason! It performs nearly as well as the high end 8800GTS, GTX and Ultra but for a fraction of the price. They are currently about $250. The GeForce 9xxx series will come out soon. Unfortunately, you have a choice ~ intel northbridge or SLI. I like the intel northbridge, even though my last board was an nForce. I don't have a practical purpose for SLI at this time (as sick as it would be!).

Monitor: The time is coming for me to move to LCD. I sold my beautiful but heavy NEC MultiSync last year so I wouldn't have to carry it around (and uselessly, after I sold my computer). I wish I hadn't but that's life. Right now I'm looking at a much bigger display anyway. I can get a Samsung 215TW 21.5" S-PVA panel for $450 (although now through the end of the month, there is a $100 mail-in rebate on newegg! Unfortunately, I just spent all my money). Alternatively, I can get a Samsung 245BW 24" TN panel for the same price ($50 Black Friday MIR!). I have to look at them in person to get a feel for whether the TN panel would bother me.

New Computer Possibilities - Part Two

2007-11-23T17:18:00.000-08:00

I received my UPS in the mail today. It's a heavy sucker, almost feels like I'm carrying a lead acid battery. It works quite nicely. The LCD display tells me the estimated time remaining (when unplugged) and the number of watts I'm using. It also says the exact number of volts coming out of the wall, which is around 120 but I'm sure when the water heater kicks on and the lights dim for a second, this would register a significant drop and boost the power to my computer. Pricey, but it makes me feel safe buying expensive computer parts. It does warn me that there is a wiring problem in my room, which doesn't surprise me too much but it's good to know that my ground... isn't, hopefully I can find a good outlet wherever my computer is going to be set up so that it can be a surge protector. I will probably also pick up a PowerSquid to add some more plugins to it. I know you're not supposed to chain them but I know how much power is going to the device so I won't overload it.

My only real criticism is that the power button on the front has a fairly bright blue LED. Since I currently sleep in the same room as my computer, this would be bothersome. Too many devices do this these days... yes, I know that you're on, you don't have to shout it. Also, I feel the power switch should be in the back, not the front so it doesn't get accidentally bumped.

I'll post more info on the UPS when I set up my computer with it.

New Computer Possibilities - Part One

2007-11-22T15:16:00.000-08:00

I bought my last computer in April 2004 but then sold it when I lost my job about a year ago. It was an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ with 512MB RAM.

I used Alex's old computer when I was living with him, it's a Pentium II 300MHz with 64MB of RAM (which I upgraded to 192MB for $10 ~ when else do you get to triple your RAM? The performance improvement is astounding ^-^). But since I moved back here, I haven't had a computer (save for the N800 I bought last month and Ryan's old Compaq Presario 2100 which I've sort of temporarily adopted).

I have about $450 worth of parts coming here in the next few days (Fri, Mon, Tues). Here is what I picked up:

Case: Antec P180B $130
HDD (boot): Seagate 7200.10 250GB IDE $70
Wifi: Linksys WRT54GL $64
UPS: CyberPower Intelligent LCD 1350VA 810W $160

Case

I have heard many good things about the Antec P180. It is a heavy steel case but also has insulating plastic and foam (triple-walled construction) to ensure quiet. The main thing holding me back was not having the money to justify a case that wasn't scavenged and beige. Now they have a black version and I've heard that this is a later revision, very similar to the P182 (e.g. rubber grommets for water tubes). I want my computer to be as quiet as possible, the only sound should be my music.

Boot Drive

Now, 250GB seems like a bit much for a boot drive considering I don't use more than 4-6GB of it. However, until I buy a second hard drive (which will most likely be 500GB), it will be my only drive. I also have a *cough*burned*cough* copy of Windows XP I can put on there for games and such after I upgrade the rest of my system. However, Warcraft III ran fine under Cedega on my AMD (it's amazing how far Wine/Cedega have come in the past decade... God, I'm getting old...). Indeed, I could theoretically even put both XP and Vista on there as well as Debian or Ubuntu in addition to some games. For nostalgia's sake, I spent a pretty penny (>$250) on a WD 250GB HDD back in 2003, they were the largest hard drives available. Now, you can get a full TERABYTE for that much and this single platter drive doesn't even break $100.

Wifi

I also decided to go for the famed WRT54GL rather than an el-cheapo Wifi card / dongle. A couple of years ago, I bought a Wifi card at a retail outlet and couldn't get it to work under Linux so I returned it and got one that I knew would work. It took some poking with a sharp stick but it worked. Wifi under Linux is slowly improving but there are no standards, a plethora of chipsets (often you're buying blind) and few manufacturer release Linux drivers. Using the WRT54GL as a bridge solves that problem ~ I simply connect a short ethernet cable to the device and configure it via a web browser. Third-party firmware can enable the device to also act as a wifi repeater which may be useful for my N800.

UPS

This is my first time buying a UPS but I am spending the extra money for safety. I've had a power surge during a storm send components smoking (luckily nothing expensive and not the mobo). Now, I don't have to worry that expensive components will burn or hard drives will crash. I've already had my clock blink 12:00 last week and I don't want that to happen to my computer, since I'm the type that keeps it on continuously (although if I can get hibernate to work, I probably won't).

Music Player Ideas - Part Two

2007-11-20T11:37:00.000-08:00

This is a follow up to my previous post regarding a new music player currently in the concept stage. The previous post introduced the project and listed several good ideas for the project from the programmer's perspective (generalizable to other projects). This is a list from the user's perspective.

Interface design for Calliope

Single-Window. I don't like the messy, multi-window approach of applications like The Gimp, Pidgin (aka. Gaim) or Muine. Unneeded parts may be hidden on-demand instead.
Playlist-Oriented. The main region should be a playlist, similar to Muine and unlike iTunes.
Album-Oriented. Albums should be simple to add or remove from the playlist as well as individual songs. Album covers should feature prominently.
Simple. The interface should be simple, straight-forward and designed to integrate well with other applications. Pluggable user-interfaces are a possible solution. Clutter is an anathema. Both the interface and the memory/disk footprint should be kept minimal.
Extensible. Third-party plugins provide a valuable way to add functionality to a program, there should be a simple interface for adding/removing, enabling/disabling and configuring particular plugins.

What else can you think of?

Music Player Ideas - Part One

2007-11-19T22:36:00.001-08:00

So it's been a while since I've done any Muine work or even anything at all since my computer has been out of order and I have been too busy and broke to get it set up again. Well, things are changing, I've got some parts on the way and we'll bring this blazing fast Pentium II back up to suck my life away chasing bugs sometime next week.

So, to get a jumpstart on this whole shift back to hacking (it's cold and icky outside anyway), here is a brainstorm for my next project. This post is similar to the one I made a few months ago (note the "Gnome 2.18! Booyah!" ~ Gnome 2.20 was recently released on its six month time-schedule).

I'm not seeking to terribly re-invent the wheel, although music players are a dime-a-dozen now. What would make my player stand out from the crowd? Well, having worked on Muine a fair bit, most of my ideas are realized in that project. However, I have my own objections to other ideas and design decisions.

I think the name "Calliope" is not taken and might work. So, let's go with that. What would Calliope look like, to the user and the programmer?

Coding for a new project
(User interaction to follow)

Written in .Net/Mono. If glue code is needed, consider generalizing it in a seperate library. This incurs an unfortunate overhead compared to C/C++ but I believe it is well worth it.
Written in Boo. Boo is a beautiful little language inspired by Python. I came from the Perl/Python/Ruby world with little C/C++ experience (my skills are still poor). I loved the .Net platform for it's power in sharing libraries (even ones written in C) and statically-typed nature. Many bugs which show up in runtime with interpreted languages instead show up at compile-time in compiled languages. Like essentially everyone, I strongly associated .Net with C#. However, I loathed having to type far more than I believed I needed to in order to get my point across. Boo is much more intelligent than C# but is a .Net language so it's fully interoperable with other .Net languages such as VB.Net, C# and Nemerle. As the Boo homepage puts it, Boo is "a finger friendly language."
Designed to be portable. No *nix-isms or Gnome dependencies (like Muine). Even possibly consider seperating the front-end from the back-end and making the front-ends pluggable. We don't want to turn into "crazy theme heaven" but it'd be nice to make it look like Windows, Mac, Gnome, or KDE on their respective platforms rather than a one-size-fits-all model. If statement 1 is followed, it may be possible to even run on different platforms without recompiling!
Tested from the beginning. Unit tests and other forms of automated testing can be very helpful. I went from simply running the program and doing a couple simple tasks and hoping it didn't crash to making much more robust programs and libraries that were unit tested, thus catching many bugs automatically. It's much easier to start with testing than to implement it later. At first it feels awkward and inane but it is well worth the extra bit of effort. Before you commit, write unit tests. Always do bounds-checking. NUnit is the unit testing suite par exellence.
Documented. They say, "If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand." Well, "they" obviously never had to work on a collaborative project or even come back to one several months later. Perl is joked about for being a "write-once" language because you can never decipher what it was that you had hacked together. I'm not suggesting full-on formal comments that take more space than the actual code, just a quick summary and notes. I haven't tried it yet but the Natural Docs parser looks nicer than the C# XML comments.
Easy to build. The NAnt build-engine is much superior to 'make' but requires awkward, long-winded XML. I have written a set of XSLT scripts called AutoNant to make everyone's life much simpler. It requires a standardized code tree though and doesn't support multiple directories under src/ (which, IMHO, is good because it forces people to split off libraries). Symlinks are used to tie the whole system together, including dependencies so you can build the whole shebang if a library changes. Of course, this means it doesn't work on systems which don't support symlinks (namely, Windows XP and earlier ~ Vista has mklink, which should work) but for distribution, the whole thing can be tar'ed up with dereferenced links (thus importing copies of dependencies' source if they are small and obscure).
Well-organized. Organizing your code makes life easier. I use a pattern of: Objects, Variables, Constructors, Properties, Public Methods, Private Methods. Each section has a header and within that section, all methods are alphabetical and sub-categories are defined if needed. Please don't make 1000 line classes or 100 line methods. I also try to call only one method per statement (thus: foo (bar (baz)); becomes: bar_baz = bar (baz); foo (bar_baz);). This seems to help keep code clear. I'm simple-minded, I know so things need to be kept in short phrases. Indeed, 80 (78, actually) characters is about right (I don't indent for namespace or class so that saves a few) for reading without being crazy verbose and jamming too much on a line. Finally, use tabs to line up statements please, that's why God invented them.

Kiva

2007-09-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

So I'm out promoting and financing capitalism now. At least it's empowering, small-time entrepreneurship since I have spent enough money towards multinational corporations and big box department stores in the past month. *sigh*

So this is Kiva. I guess it's got a lot of press lately but I don't have a TV or pay attention to news of this type. However, I have heard of microloans. The idea is that you loan someone $25 (or $50 or $75) as part of a greater loan anywhere from like $50 to $1500 and they repay it in a certain amount of time (interest-free, you don't get to make money off the poor). The actual lending is done by local providers who are partnered with Kiva. They also keep updates on the people's lives and the health of their business.

After looking around the site for quite a while and reading about different people's proposals I picked a woman who had used the site twice before and owned a clothing shop in Mozambique. She needed $400 to expand her business. Here is her profile page. I sent her $25 (plus an additional 10%, which was optional, towards Kiva) and in five months she should have it all paid off (she's set to repay monthly so maybe I'll see a $5 payment next month) and I can recycle that money and maybe add another $25 to the pot.

This way my money isn't just sitting in a bank somewhere (actually, I'm at WECU credit union now) but instead being used to help people. It's also better than a straight-up donation because "aid" actually really hurts a lot of people. The United States loves to dump cheap or free goods into a country, which wrecks their economy. While I am definitely still socialist in outlook, welfare only works in small amounts and other methods are much more beneficial to help people get on their feet.

Anyway, you get the $25 back this way so you don't lose a thing and you get to help a specific person out. It's also the only organization to get special favors from PayPal to not charge any fee for transactions so your entire $25 goes to the individual and overhead costs are donated separately (recommended 10%, so $2.50). It's a good idea and it can't hurt.

God has given me a more steady income now and I'm slowly getting on my feet myself but how much more are people in poorer countries hurting? I'm quite rich in their standards and anyway, poor folk need to help each other out, we can't expect the rich to do it for us.

This is a little JavaScript banner. If it doesn't show her business, that means her loan has been gathered together... Then we can wait in excitement for her to get her money and build her business.

Evangelicals Flee to Orthodoxy

2007-08-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Article in the New Republic about an evangelical pastor dismayed over the fluffy "seeker-sensitive"/"church growth" movements, defects to the Antiochian Orthodox Church (which, unlike Greek and Russian, is primarily English speaking). I ran across a similar article while working at KFC which said that the fastest growing church in Seattle was the Orthodox church. For many decades made up nearly exclusively with immigrants, evangelical Protestants are converting, looking for a more meaningful and traditional community and spirituality.

Why Gay Marriage?

2007-07-27T23:17:00.001-07:00

Why is gay marriage such a divisive issue? It's like we judge presidential candidates and even individuals on what they think of gay marriage. The only reason I care about gay marriage is because I'm gay but I care about poverty, health care, and violent empire building much more. Why do so many straight people care one way or the other? o_O

Policies I would implement

2007-07-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

Ban non-human powered transportation (bikes okay; no cars, planes or trains). Tear up the freeways and highways and replace with trails.
Open the borders.
Establish and enforce the right of all workers, citizens and non-citizens, to fair union representation.
Slash the military budget, end all occupations. Abolish all first-strike policies. Wait? Won't people invade us then? Well, quit doing all you can to piss people off!
Functional universal health care. Focus on preventative care, not drugs. End corporate drug advertising and cap drug prices.
Make the FDA actually work. Mandate full ingredient lists on food (no "natural and artificial ingredients"), including alcoholic beverages (pop has to have a nutritional label but alcopop doesn't :-/). Severely limit allowed ingredients.
Ban GMO crops, we don't have enough information and they can take over native crops creating a monoculture of plants engineered solely to make greater profits.
Ban artificial hormones in cattle and other animals. We know they have serious side effects in humans but money, not health, talks.
Ban petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Dumping chemicals on our food is starting to have serious health effects. The massive doses of pesticides used in cotton production trashes the soil and they often are rotated with food (esp. peanuts), which brings deadly chemicals otherwise banned for food use into our food.
Ban animal testing. Broaden existing laws to include rats, mice and birds as animals (!). Extend animal abuse crimes to include corporations (e.g. what Michael Vick did could have been done legally if done by a corporation or university claiming it was for "scientific advancement" or "testing of consumer products").
Severely restrict the cruelest forms of animal torture and exploitation, including the fur trade. Ban zoos and circuses which use animals.
Restrict animal breeding to discourage domestication as harmful to animals and the environment.
Reinstitute high tariffs to protect our national economy.
Drastically shrink the federal government. Move closer towards confederacy, government should function bottom-up, not top-down. Localism should be encouraged, centralism discouraged. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved for the States respectively, or to the people." (10th Amendment to the Constitution)
Abolish corporate welfare and personhood.
Abolish the practice of dumping goods in the form of "aid", which destroys local economies.
End the "War on (Certain) Drugs". It only exacerbates the problem. What is of prime importance is to raise the living conditions in the inner city through economic restructuring and social programs that actually work.

The general idea is agrarian localist socialist, partly inspired by Wendell Berry and mostly inspired by my disdain for the current state of affairs.

What else can you think of?

Bling!

2007-07-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

This was posted to another blog regarding the future of the Gnome desktop.

The “bling!” factor never impressed me much. Not too long ago, Gnome used Enlightenment as the default window manager. We moved to Sawfish/Sawmill and then to Metacity, paring down the window manager into something “serious” and simple.

I was never too impressed with Enlightenment. It’s fun, sure, lots of glowing and shiny buttons (esp. e17) but everything is just so *heavy* and *fuzzy*. I prefer simple and snappy. Lately, I’ve been very impressed by XFCE, it’s slowly growing more robust while remaining quick and straightforward.

For example, I have never understood why music players need to have an interface entirely unlike anything else on the system (eg. Winamp/xmms). At least now with the current generation ~ Muine, Rhythmbox, Banshee, etc. ~ things look normal and more *usable*.

I definitely agree that if we’re going to start incorporating Clutter, Lowfat, Compiz/Beryl, Pyro, etc. we are going to need a HIG which addresses these interfaces. They need to be standardized and accessible if they are going to be an official part of Gnome. Just doing things because Apple did them isn’t good enough, they need to have a purpose (demoware is not a good reason). Are ideas like iTunes’ coverflow useful? Personally, I prefer just scrolling through a list of albums (Muine) rather than through a 3D flipbook (iTunes), the pictures are good but is there any purpose to making it 3D?

Another concern is *reduced* functionality with increased “bling”. I put my desktops in a 3×3 square so that every desktop has 4 adjacent desktops. Every desktop is home to a separate application (terminal, GEdit/vim, Firefox, Nautilus, Muine, etc) so I can easily switch between them. With Compiz/Beryl, switching between desktops is not only slower but can only be done linearly (as far as I’m aware) so that every desktop only has 2 adjacent desktops. It looks cool but reduces my ability to actually work. 3D file managers (”It’s a Unix system, I know this!”) never caught on because file management (along with most other things) is a bear in 3D.

What is the purpose of these projects? We are putting them out there, saying that if the architecture exists, the projects will come. No offense to Rasterman et al. but there’s a reason Enlightenment isn’t taken seriously and why it’s not popular. Shiny effects aren’t what bring people to the desktop, Vista proved that. “The wow starts now!” wasn’t effective once people realized that things simply didn’t work and were awkward, ugly and confusing when they did.

Project Ridley (”libgnome must die!”) intrigues me more than the new “bling” libraries. I also see Mono as bringing a more pluggable, rapid development, integrated architecture to Gnome if done right (we have to watch the resource consumption and speed on this a *lot*, along with Python now that both are officially used by Gnome). I’m not saying that we need to be XFCE but, as the previous commenter said, “Let’s not lose our heads here.”

Music Player Wishlist

2007-03-15T02:19:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by this post regarding what you would like to see in a next gen music (or audio, more generally) player.

I personally like Muine, it is in C# (mostly) and that makes it easy to maintain (in theory, at least). It is simple and clean and I prefer it. Over the past two years or so, I've put in many hours trying to clean up the codebase and such.

What are your thoughts on what you want to see in a music player?

PS: Gnome 2.18! Booyah!

C# Collection Performance

2007-03-10T14:47:00.000-08:00

This is kinda for my own benefit. It's taken from here.

Generic	Non-Generic	Insert	Contains	Sort	Remove
List<T>	ArrayList	O(1)	O(n)	O(n log n)	O(n)
Dictionary<K,V>	Hashtable	O(1)	O(1)	O(n log n)	O(1)
SortedList<K,V>	SortedList	O(n)	O(n)	O(log n)	O(n)
LinkedList<T> Queue<T> Stack<T>	Queue Stack ListDictionary	O(1)	O(n)	O(n log n)	O(n)
SortedDictionary<K,V>		O(log n)	O(log n)	O(n)	O(log n)

Homosexuality and Christianity

2007-02-13T15:43:00.000-08:00

Tony Campolo and his wife have an article (free registration required, sorry) on Sojourner's regarding the two different views of Christians on homosexuality -- celibacy and equality. This same debate appears on GCN.

The side favoring celibacy sees the prohibitions against homosexuality in the Bible as still relevant and important. To them, it's not important whether or not someone is attracted to the same sex or the opposite sex but that sex is only sanctified in marriage and marriage is only available to male-female pairs (regardless of attraction). Therefore, any activity outside of that is prohibited.

The other side says that the prohibitions against homosexuality are either part of the superseded "purity code" (the same reason most Christians don't follow Kosher laws) or that they are referring to the unclear class of people called arsenokoitai ("male-bed"), which they believe only refers to male prostitutes.

My understanding of Scripture is more nuanced. I was raised with a strict literalist view but now I think that people are just trying to understand God and please Him and relay His messages to other people. A lot of human prejudices and confusion gets injected into that. This is not to say that other people's understanding of God is not important. Religion is part of culture, it is our cultural understanding of the Divine and our place in the universe. But there are beliefs which lead to social harmony and facilitate love and peace and there are beliefs which lead to chaos and hatred and violence. I believe that only the former come from God, the latter are our own creations (or, some would say, that of the devil).

We can look at the destructiveness of promiscuity and how it doesn't really help people come into close, intimate relationships with other people but instead creates an artificial layer of sex which keeps people from really getting to know each other and to have healthy, fulfilling relationships.

I believe same-sex and opposite-sex relationships should be treated with equal rights and equal respect because it's the people in those relationships that is of prime importance.

I don't know why I feel the way I do but I don't feel bad about it either. Some people might just say that I've desensitized myself and I just don't care whether it's right or wrong but I actually do care. Homosexuality is not the same as bestiality or pedophilia, after all, say the homophobes, people with those desires can't control them either and don't feel that they're wrong either. The difference is that intimate, healthy romantic relationships can't exist between a man and a dog or a man and a ten year old girl but they certainly can exist between two men or two women. Drawing an artificial line saying that only romantic relationships between a man and a woman are acceptable is not productive to a healthy society.

I have seen so much hatred, violence and hurt come from people claiming to be enforcing the laws of God as it relates to gay people (but, of course, never to themselves). Jesus (Mt. 7:16-20) that you can tell a tree by its fruit and the fruit that homophobia breeds is the antithesis of Christianity and of love. God will enforce God's laws.

Instead of rejecting homosexuality, most gay people reject Christianity because they don't understand the basis for this condemnation. They feel, that by virtue of living, they are being told they are particularly evil and sinful. Far too many children are being taught by their parents and peers, oftentimes with people claiming that they are enforcing God's laws, that they are bad for who they are, and they get brutalized, harassed and murdered or driven to suicide.

It's my belief from reading the stories of many "ex-gay" Christians, that people are trying to force themselves into relationships which are unhealthy in order to please God. God is pleased when you love other people and work to have good, functional, healthy relationships with other people, both romantic and platonic and with Him. Fighting your God-given nature isn't pleasing to God.

As a Christian, even if you believe that homosexuality is a sin, you are not going to do any good bashing on someone about it. What you need to do is to simply help cultivate their relationship to God and God will lead them to do what is right. Perhaps in some cases, God leads people to an understanding that their homosexuality was rooted in confusion from being molested or an envy of other members of the same sex or hedonism or any other number of factors. If these are the root cause then healing will take place but you can't heal something that isn't broken.

About Me

2007-02-10T01:23:00.000-08:00

I'm a 22 year old, very geeky, pansexual girl bouncing between Seattle and my true love, Bellingham. I went to Western Washington University for a couple years but I'm trying to get my life in order before I go back. I was a Sociology major but I might change to Computer Science or something because I know it's something I can succeed at. However, I always like to make sure I am well-rounded.

I enjoy coding (mainly in C# and Boo under Mono), although too much of what I write doesn't make it to the stage where it's actually on the Internet to download (although at some point, I'll have to explore Google Code. However, I have done some stuff with the Muine music player. I spend too much of my time reading various blog feeds and Slashdot. I run Debian.

Living in a New Monastic community in Bellingham last year was the best time of my life. I really was able to connect with people and become more social and saw how life can be really good if people recognize that we are all brothers and sisters. I also was able to reconnect with God and learn a new perspective on Christianity -- one that is multi-faceted and full of mystery. Some good modern authors for anyone to read are: Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, Wendell Berry, and Jim Wallis. Also check out Sojourners magazine.