2 Bit Hacker

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Well, I’m sitting here trying to install Gentoo Linux (or, to be politically correct, GNU/Linux) again on my home PC. I tried to install
Gentoo 1.4rc for a couple of nights, but with very little success. It would
get segmentation faults during compiling the stage2 bootstrap. So, on the
advice of someone online, I’m trying Gentoo 1.2 tonight. So far, it seems
much happier. I will probably leave it alone for a while and go to sleep.

OshaSafetyWear finally launched. I haven’t checked to see if we’ve gotten any orders yet, but it’s now capable of
receiving them. Now I just need to tie up some loose ends and it should be
all good and happy.

I’ve also started working on my custom image gallery software in Mason. So far it can display thumbnails of pictures
in a simple directory structure, and display pictures at a given resolution.
I’m working on doing image overlays, so as to stamp a logo on images. Future
plans for the project include storing metadata for the images, searching, and
maybe support for galleryremote, a tool for posting images to
Gallery. If I can do that, it should be very
neat indeed.

Well, I’ve been pretty busy since my last post. I’ve been doing some work on the side for OshaSafetyWear.com, writing a shopping cart interface to their existing product database. It’s been rather fun, and I’m nearly done with it all. Not sure Andrea’s too happy with the amount of time I’ve been spending on it though.

At SimPro, I’ve been beating my head against a wall over distinctive ring detection (with an uncooperative modem) and setting up a more module voice menuing structure. It’s been slow going, but I hope to get it tied up early next week. Then I get to move on to more interesting things, like testing out the new NetBSD 1.6, and beginning to rewrite my software to make it more adaptable to the new paradigm in SimPro’s products. (ooh, I used paradigm, and it almost makes sense in that context, yay

I’ve also been working on a FreeBSD-based wireless access point system for IronCastle. It’s designed for use in an open envirnment, where you need some accountability on who’s using it. The prototype is going to be installed in a small sandwich shop in town. Should be pretty interesting, assuming I can nail down a resonable firewall/access system for it.

I also traded by old Sony Clié PEG-S300 to jtn for a SPARCstation LX and a NeXTstation. The NeXTstation apparently doesn’t work (I’ve taken it apart and found an uncovered EEPROM, I think it may be the cause), so I’m thinking of trying to squeeze a PC into it’s casing. Should look nice in the entertainment center. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve got a PCMCIA adapter for the LX, so I’m probably going to be playing with turning it into an access point. That should be fun.

That’s about it for me. Andrea is back in class at UNHM, she’s taken some courses there until she can transfer over to the art institute. She’s started watching Changing Rooms now, and has become unhappy with our apartment since she can’t change everything like they do on the show.

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Yay! Long weekend! I get to sleep in late for THREE days in a row

Anyway…. my sickness is getting better. My nose still gets stuffed up, but it isn’t nearly as bad as it was. I hope it’ll all be gone in a
couple days.

Over the past weekend Andrea and I have been somewhat busy. On Saturday we went into Boston and visited the Aquarium. It was fun. They have a
bunch of penguins hanging around the bottom of their big central tank.
We got to see a bunch of fish and stuff, but we missed any of the shows
and feedings, probably because we went so late in the day. After that we
had dinner at The Black Rose, I had Shepherd’s Pie, and it was tasty.
Then we wandered around Faneuil Hall. Andrea bought a sweater from the
Gap since she was getting cold. Finally we went to the Cambridgeside
Galleria and Andrea did some more shopping, and we got dessert at a
place next to the mall. All in all, it was a fun trip.

Yesterday, we went over to my mom’s house for a family get-together. Andrea made marshmallow and cream cheese fruit dip, and everybody liked
it. We ate chicken and suvlaki. We ended up staying till nearly 11pm
just talking with my mom and Ralph. Again, it was a fun day.

Not sure what we’re doing today. We’re probably going to go do some more shopping. Andrea needs to get a birthday gift for one of her cousins,
and I’m kind-of looking at GPS’s still. I’m still kicking around the
plans for going out to see my dad. The second week in October is looking
attractive. Nothing set in stone yet though.