The Design and Implementation of laffer1

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/12/07/aruba/index.html?iref=topnews

What was the point in arresting him?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/12/07/c64/index.html

I remember using a C64 at several points in my life. My first computer programming class used c64s in eight grade. Some of the games were great.

Ever had the feeling you should be using java for something? I'm getting that feeling now. Well it's a start.

If you would like to express your opinion of the previous entry...
http://www.house.gov/conyers/

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.4279:

This bill helps big media companies by creating a new IP cop division of the government. They can steal your computer on the accusations of the RIAA or MPAA of copyright infringement. This can be spoofed or done through a virus or other malware without your knowledge. You can lose your computer for no reason. Yes this is a bit sensational, but it's so true.

The bill was sponsored by John Conyers, Jr. from Detroit.

I'm feeling the stress piling on as the semester nears an end. I've got homework, programming assignments, portfolios (x2), and tests galore. Tonight I get to do a CS test that I don't feel prepared for.

I have one more class left in English before the end of the semester which is interesting. Next week is a biggie.

I'm trying to unwind with mild JJ development. I've almost implemented the blogger api.

I've defended Microsoft for the last time. Windows Vista sucks. I upgraded to 4GB of RAM and now Windows will not boot. It corrupted the boot loader and screwed some of my data. The whole point of a 64bit OS is to use more than 4GB of RAM!

During research, I learned that video card RAM has to be addressed in the same address space. So you can figure out the max ram for your system by taking 4GB and subtracting your video RAM. Vista has a nasty bug where it double counts it when using direct x 9 compatibility. That means subtract double unless you patch for it. That limits me to 3GB stable.

I'm going back to 32bit XP as we speak. What's the point of vista. The big feature is gone. At least i'll get my games back. Interestinly, Ubuntu will also not boot with 4GB of ram (32bit) on 7.10 but an older version does. MidnightBSD is working fine and memory tests are ok.

Say no to Vista!

I bought 2 x 1 GB PC5300 chips for my desktop. The idea was to go to 4GB of ram. That would be an issue except I'm running 64bit vista (and midnightbsd). The system works fine in MidnightBSD, but with all the RAM in Vista freaks out. At first it seemed like it was Norton AV so I uninstalled it. However, that didn't solve the VERY SLOW perfrormance. It takes 22 minutes to get into the gui with services loaded! At 3GB of RAM it works. Before I had 2.5GB of RAM. 2 of the new chips and one of the old 1GB chips are in. My next test is 3.5GB total. The ram is now operating in Dual Channel mode and vista rates it slower. THere could be a memory timing difference between the RAM. The new stuff is kingston. The old stuff I bought at CompUSA before they closed.

Caryn's Mac tool her 4GB of extra ram without a problem. She was playing WoW in less than 30 minutes. My vista install is still screwed up after 5 hours. I've NEVER had this much trouble installing RAM. Since it seems to work with different chips, I don't think it's any one chip. It seems stable with 3GB so i'll deal with that for now. It's getting time for bed anyway.

The initial sales figures at retailers show that more DVD players were getting sold than either new format.  The mad rush has not happened.  I've also been reading misinformation on many blogs and websites about studio support for each format. 

HD DVD

Supporters:
Universal/NBC (subsidising the format)
Toshiba (making most of the players)
Microsoft

Studios
Universal
Paramount (exclusive?) 
Warner (both formats)

Porn industry

Blue Ray

Supporters:
Sony
Apple
...Studios
Sony Pictures
Disney
Warner (dual format)
Fox (showing blue ray on their site limitedly)

Technology

Both formats use the same codecs to encode video although blue ray titles tend to use mpeg2 more often (DVD like).  Blue ray has higher capacity discs.  HD DVD players are required to have more interactive features built in which means end users can do more "tricks". 

Price

Toshiba, Universal and Microsoft are intentionally releasing very cheap players to win the format war.  As the technology is similar, the real issues are disc capacity and availability of videos. 

Movies and TV

Most consumers don't know about either format.  Further, both sides have released general purpose titles that don't target people who adopt early.  This is slowing adoption.  Most PS3 owners don't know they have a blue ray player.  Most xbox 360 owners don't know they can add HD DVD for less than $200. 

Paramount is releasing Star Trek on HD DVD.  There are rumors that Indy and Star Wars will go with that format too.  George Lucas also liked laser disc though.  Most people have bought these films recently on DVD and don't want to pay more. 

Universal has released their stupid films like knocked up on HD DVD and until recently did not try to release classics that people really like.  James Bond might be released on HD DVD. Porn might promote the format.  The Porn industry feels that HD DVD is better because they don't have to pay licensing fees to release discs.  It's cheaper for them. 

Blue Ray has done a little better with diversity in films.  Sony has a very strange catalog at the moment with distribution rights on MGM films (although bond is going to fox?)  as well as their own library.  Spider-man, and most of the other marvel films are on Blue Ray.  Disney classics and Pixar releases are going Blue Ray like Cars, Ratatoile, etc.  In the past, Disney has picked the winner. 

In the end, it has to do with who wants to buy the format to go with their new TVs.  If people all go on price, HD DVD wins and the movies will eventually come out. 

Disclaimer: I prefer Blue Ray for two reasons.  1. The capacity of the format is much larger which means it's better for backup on computers (not movies) and there are actually burners for it.  2. I don't like the companies releasing players for HD DVD.  They are mostly known for cheap, low quality products.  If there were more diversity in that camp, I would probably settle for it on price factors. 

The PS3 has been sold as many times as the xbox 360 in first year sales.  The units are comparable and both are overshadowed by the Nintendo Wii. 

There have been many people who have reportedly bought multiple xbox 360s due to failures.  It would be interesting to subtract out duplicate purchases from the figures of each console.  I suspect that the PS3 has actually done better than the xbox in sales.  Remember that the core system was $300 which is half the price of the original PS3 units.  The real question is how many games are getting sold.  That is possibly a better indicator of sales volume.  Many people have speculated that Wii owners aren't buying games.  Unlike the hidef war, there could actually be a winner and loser in the game console war. 

It's the holiday season again. Family fighting and manipulation are rampant. My father finally sent me a birthday gift. It's November. My birthday was in May. Had to make sure it was for this last year. He included a card with a chicken on it. Good way to mend things with a vegetarian. I don't eat meat.

Thanksgiving

My mother came over for Thanksgiving. It was a rather relaxing holiday. My father wasn't around to start shit. I didn't have to deal with the in laws. Usually Caryn's family doesn't bother me, but it's very awkward during the holidays. My family is always rude to them if they run into each other this time of year.

Caryn made a tofurkey, pumpkin pie (Libby's recipe) and the usual veggie fixings. My mother seemed to like it. We ended up watching The Producers on DVD (original) and playing the Wii. She loves Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Sports.

Professors stick us with homework

As usual some of my professors decided to ruin the holidays for their students with tons of bullshit work. I get annoyed because I am usually ready to pull my hair out this time of year anyway. I'm trying to decide how much I have to do and how much can slide until Monday.

CPU

I bought a new CPU for my desktop. It's an Intel core 2 duo 6420 aka 2.13Ghz w/ 4MB Cache. It's helping quite a bit with my system performance. The RAM is now running at 667MHz and the power management is great. In MidnightBSD, one of the cores is slowing down to 800MHz when the system is idle. Some improvements should help with that problem. The heat when first starting the system is almost half. Now the chip runs at 32C instead of the old chip at 60C. I think it will be better as the compound sets in. In Vista, the computer's index is now 5.0. The RAM went from 4.6 to 5.3 and the CPU when from 4.7 to 5.0. Some people don't pay any attention to those tests, but it's still a way to compare systems. I didn't see too many at Best Buy that scored a 5.0 last time I looked several months ago.

http://www.twocanoes.com/winclone/

This software allows you to clone NTFS boot camp images.  Combining this with a script would probably work out well. 

I think I might have written an entry about LDAP previously, however I feel that I should write a second entry.

I have successfully authenticated a MidnightBSD machine against an Mac OS X server (10.4.10). 

Ports needed:  nss_ldap, pam_ldap

Create a shared config file in /usr/local/etc
ldap.conf or nss_ldap.conf


# Your LDAP server. Must be resolvable without using LDAP.
# Multiple hosts may be specified, each separated by a
# space. How long nss_ldap takes to failover depends on
# whether your LDAP client library supports configurable
# network or connect timeouts (see bind_timelimit).
host YOURSERVERIP

# The distinguished name of the search base.
base dc=od,dc=cs,dc=emich,dc=edu
base dc=od,dc=cs,dc=emich,dc=edu
nss_base_passwd cn=users,dc=od,dc=cs,dc=emich,dc=edu?one
nss_base_shadow cn=users,dc=od,dc=cs,dc=emich,dc=edu?one
nss_base_group          cn=groups,dc=od,dc=cs,dc=emich,dc=edu?one


nsswitch.conf needs this:

group: files ldap
group_compat: nis
hosts: files dns
networks: files
passwd: files ldap
passwd_compat: nis
shells: files
shadow: files ldap

There are also some things in pam.d

This is not "complete" by any means.  I was also able to nfs mount the home directories too.  There are some issues with X11 and locking in this setup but I haven't had time to refine the approach.

I've been asked to find a solution to using boot camp at work.  We need to image 20-30 machines in a dual boot setup.  According to various sources there are only a few options.

1. Netrestore.  The idea here is that you'd setup a Mac and make copies.  Windows must be on a NTFS volume.

2. dd.  This old friend can duplicate a disk including the GPT/MBR hybrid needed to boot OS X and Windows.  Of course if your drive is another size, you are out of luck. 

3. Manually setting up each machine with boot camp.  This one is out.

4. Imaging the machine as normal for OS X and then using a Bart PE disk customized with the OS X drivers for Intel macs to use Windows ghost.  Of course this breaks the Microsoft EULA for Windows.  I do like ghost, and this one is interesting.  We do not have a license that I can use in the CS department. 

I'm leaning toward the dd solution.  We could do that with a Mac OS X boot on firewire which Kirk is into right now.  I could script it pretty easily.  I can't find a firewire cable to test it tonight though.  I really do want to try this. 

There are further limitations.  GPT does not support extended partitions.  MBR does not support more than 4 partitions.  The combination means you can't use extended or more than 4 primary partitions.  One is used by EFI.  That gives you a maximum of three partitions for this to work in hybrid mode.  Windows must be on the last partition. 

Some people can get os x, linux and windows triple booting by using a third party boot loader.  The apple loader doesn't support triple boot effectively. 

Kirk has proposed multibooting OS X, OS X and Windows.  I'm not sure if that will work or not with Apple's software.  (10.4, 10.5 and XP)

I'm preparing for class, but I had an opportunity to work with the 10.5.1 update for 10 minutes. First observations:

1. The firewall dialog has changed.  Instead of fixing it, they changed the text to something logical.  "Allow only essential services"   Better, but I want more control over the firewall. A "quick list" of built in OS X apps and services to allow is a good start. 
   
2. Mail closes MUCH faster.  It is like night and day.  I'm quite happy with that.
3. The finder seems to be working subtly better.  I don't know what it is, but it "feels" better.
4. After another reinstall my wacom tablet is working.  I don't know if that will last
5. It's a 40mb update.  Not "small"

I come in to find that the iMac I was trying to develop an image on for boot camp has been dicked with and is without a keyboard but ASLEEP.  Next, i find the keyboard in the middle of my build cluster with half the units partially disconnected and beater macs in their places.  SHIT has been put all over the room that i had been cleaning very carefully.

And this is why nothing gets done.  Now kirk wants us to deploy logins and has taken away my job with bootcamp.  I sense a power struggle between kirk and new chris.. well an agenda difference at least.  This fucking sucks. 

To compile a qt33 app in MidnightBSD, you need to run the qmake command first.  (like all platforms)  However, you need to define the path to a spec file or else you'll get an error. 

Here is the proper command line usage:

qmake myfile.pro -spec /usr/local/share/qt/mkspecs/freebsd-g++

We need our own mkspecs file.

You may need to edit the Makefile as well. QTDIR isn't getting set.

The secrets...

You MUST format the partition in the windows installer (full format) for it to work.  Not formatting or a quick format will not allow the install to boot even though it appears to complete.  This causes the dreaded disk error.  A fast NTFS format will get you an ntloader error.  (XP SP2 VLK)

I've got a CS test in 30 minutes or so.  I'm not prepared as I'd like to be. 

I spent 10 minutes reading the manual on my calculator.  I'm so mixed about buying this thing.  It can do so many things, but I don't know how to use it and it's not intuitive to me.  Doh!  I miss the Ti85. 

The CS work is another matter.  I think I know most of the technical data, but I'm not sure about procedures.  Half the test is math and that is not my strong suit.  We can have very limited notes, but I'm not sure they will be of much help.  For instance, one type of problem requires synthetic division of binary numbers.  I understand the procedure to do that, but I almost always make a mistake and end up with the wrong result.  Since he only gives 1 point, that means I automatically get the problem wrong even though I get the procedure.  There are going to be 15-20 1 point problems and some require a lot of work.  One mistake or putting it in the wrong units can be the end as you only get 1 point.  It sucks.

I studied before my english class, after my english class, and probably one more time before class starts.  I can't relax as I know how I an English paper due and a programming assignment (wed and thurs respectively). 

I just love the bsdstats project.  It's so interesting to see what systems are on there.  PC-BSD is number 2 and they report on all installs by default.  MirBSD also does that.  I don't know about DesktopBSD.  We do not report on all of them and I've got our build cluster in there now. :) 

Some systems have not reported yet and there will be more running MidnightBSD shortly.  I wish those were "real" users.  I mean people do use it an EMU now, but I'd like to see some random people listed.  Perhaps I should reconsider the reporting.