Somewhere out there!

Galeon is getting somewhat unstable, and takes forever to render pages. Somewhat annoying. Even though I prefer its UI to a degree over firefox, its time to move.

Well dansguardian is working, and the anti-virus scanner is doing its job.

A friend is thinking about moving his blogger service to WordPress on my server. However he says he doesn’t trust databases, and that text files rule. To make him feel happier sleeping at night I put together a quick script to backup the wordpress data in the mysql database to a text file.

Often reading slashdot articles you find links to other unrelated but interesting sites. This post had a bundle.

I’m trying to build a debian package with the Aecio F. Neto’s DansGuardian Anti-Virus patch.
Unfortunately the patch was for 2.7.7-8 and debian is at the current 2.7.7-9.

I should have set this up years ago.

I’m planning to move my router infrastructure to flashboot from flashdist. I’ve got one of my soekris units back from the field, time to do a bios upgrade and some general service before I prepare the dev images for testing.

Went hunting for some more electric sheep backgrounds and discovered this site. There are also some good pictures here.

Compare the two following pictures, using the same Canon 300D.

Taken with Canon EF 100-300mm F/4.5-5.6 USM.

Taken with Canon EF 70-200mm F/2.8L IS USM.

The equipment is working hard to make the photographer look good in the second picture. I picked up the first len at Pro Gear second-hand after taking these shots. The L-series lens is definitely on my wishlist, but at six times the price it’ll have to wait.

The Advantage of Being Useless, by George Sweet is one of my favourite books. The headlining tale is one of Chung Tzu’s goodies:

A sage, in rambling about the heights of Shang, saw a large and
extraordinary tree. The teams of a thousand chariots might be sheltered
under it , and its shade would cover them all! Said the sage, “What a
tree this is! It must contain an extraordinary amount of timber!”

The sage looked up at the smaller branches and saw they were so twisted
and crooked that they could not be made in rafters and beams. At the
roots its stem was divided into so many rounded potions that neither
coffins nor shell could be made from them. Licking one of the leaves
left the mouth feeling torn and wounded. The small of it would make one
frantic, as if intoxicate, for three whole days together.

“This indeed is a tree good for nothing, and it is thus that it has
reach so great an age.”

The cinnamon tree can be eaten, and there is cut down.
The varnish tree is useful, and therefore incisions are made in it.

All know the advantage of being useful, but no one knows the advantage
of being useless.

– Chuang Tzu.