Jason's Recent Weblog Entries

Running out of Time aka "Clock-Flew"
If you're running FreeBSD 5.2 on older hardware and find that the system clock is gaining from 1-3 seconds per second, take a look at the possible values for kern.timecounter.hardware. In particular, I needed

kern.timecounter.hardware=TSC

Category: /it           permanent link

vCheck Initial Release
I have put together a simple tool called vCheck which can probe a network service such as smtp or ssh and report whether or not the software running that service (e.g., Sendmail, OpenSSH) is up to date.

Category: /it           permanent link

DNS Turns 20, and some thoughts on DNS reliability and security
See my newly-posted introductory essay on the Domain Name System. This writing was occasioned by the 20th anniversary of DNS, and is just the start of a larger piece.

Category: /it           permanent link

Longhorn and the end of Taxonomy
I've always had a deep interest in file systems, and I'm particularly interested in "database-ish" filesystems such the future reiser FS and Microsoft's "WinFS". But I have to disagree with the boosterish conclusions of this recent "preview" of Longhorn/WinFS. I don't believe that database mechanisms will eliminate the need for directories and folders any more than automated card catalogs have obsoleted librarians or Google has obsoleted good web site design. Taxonomy, the art and science of classification, is a hard problem which will continue to demand human attention for many years to come.

Category: /it           permanent link

The Matrix Reloaded
This past weekend I finally saw The Matrix Reloaded. I have quite a few complaints, but also enjoyed it. It's definitely worth $9.50, unlike some other recent blockbuster sequels (e.g., Star Wars).

(Warning for those still planning to see it, movie discussion follows...)

I liked the opening sequence, Zion, and most of the scene with the Architect. I didn't like the soundtrack (pales in comparison to the prior movie), the "Burly Brawl" (dull, repetitive, a waste of $40M of animation), the costuming (dull, repetitive), and the blatant Cadillac product placement.

For some post-movie laughs, you should check out the abridged script. Also see the IMDB's trivia list.

Category: /film           permanent link

Neoprene, Part I
I have a neoprene case for my digital camera. It fits perfectly and has done a great job protecting the Elph from drops, scratches, and shocks. I'd like to have perfect-fitting neoprene gear for my film camera and its various lenses. The off-the-shelf options don't fit my SLR perfectly, so last week I bought a yard each of two different types of neoprene. (5mm with fabric on one side, and 3mm with fabric on both sides)

This weekend I experimented with using hotglue to join pieces together. It worked great whenever I made a fabric-to-fabric bond, but for rubber-to-rubber bonds it just wasn't very durable. Next up to bat will be superglue and my consumer-grade sewing machine.

Category: /photo           permanent link

Bloxxsum and Mason Reach Accord
I have finished the integration of the weblogging tool I use (Bloxxsum) with the website templating tool I use (HTML::Mason). This means that the "category" and "permanent link" hyperlinks at the right side of each log entry will now work correctly.

I'm working on a short document to explain this integration, but the *very* short version is: 1) create a dhandler component in the part of your Mason components tree which will represent the weblog, 2) hack Bloxxsum to not require CGI.pm and to work when executed from a Mason component, 3) set MasonDeclineDirectories to 0 for the weblog's uri path or portion of your document root, and 4) modify your weblog dhandler to pass Bloxxsum (as PATH_INFO) whatever you get from $m->dhandler_arg().

Category: /site           permanent link

Jury Duty, Part I
I've been serving on a civil jury for the last week and a half, and the experience is really refining my "People's Court"-derived ideas about how tort cases are handled and my understanding of what constitutes an expert witness and expert witness testimony. I think I could do a job as an expert in my own fields.

The courtroom is both interesting and boring by turns, but we take a 10 minute break every hour so it's not too challenging to keep alert. The frequent breaks are something I'll have to remember for the next time I'm chairing a long meeting.

Category: /life           permanent link

Paul Graham on Hackers and Painters
Alot to disagree with, but also much food for thought in Paul Graham's recent Hackers and Painters essay.

Category: /culture           permanent link

Bloxxsum and Mason Collide
I use a weblogging tool called Bloxxsum and this website is dynamically composed with the aid of HTML::Mason. Getting the two tools to work together has been challenging. Bloxxsum uses CGI.pm and CGI.pm is dying with an error when I call Bloxxum from a Mason component. For the moment I've mangled Bloxxsum to remove the dependency on CGI.pm, but that means you can only see the most recent entries in my weblog. You can't take advantage of its usual ability to show only specific categories of entry or to offer permanent hyperlinks to particular entries.

I hope to fix this soon

Category: /site           permanent link