Month: June 2004

Feeds fixed …

It was pointed out to me that the feeds here were returning 404s … I upgraded to the lastest stable version and it still didn’t work … After some thinking etc, and some forum searching, I determined it was the absence of a valid .htaccess file … Even after putting that in place, it still didn’t work … So then I started to edit the file manually to explicitly add the redirects (cause it’s a bunch of regex in there now) and stopped myself thinking that it may be in the site’s configuration not to use the .htaccess file … lo and behold, that was the case … So even though mod_rewrite is enabled, etc … Still had to go in there and make the changes for the virtual site … I thanked the person who told me this and I now continue on my merry way … The only thing I lost in the upgrade was the CSS file for the site … I had a temporary backup which is in place now but some little tweaks don’t exist in this file … What is very upsetting is that I backed up the directory before I performed the upgrade, but wouldn’t you know it, that file wasn’t there for some reason? Must have done things too fast for my own good …

Heavily working …

There haven’t been many updates to the bLog here cause I’ve been working on many web designs … It takes a lot of time especially when I am working on them from 3 different sources at two different locations … On a couple I have the idea of what needs to be accomplished … On others I am guessing … I have one where I am guessing and the site owner is asking me for suggestions … Very difficult situation … They want the world, but they don’t know what they want … On others I create what I think is best, and then I have to go through the rejection or acception process … Who ever said this was easy? Then there’s been the updating of the other sites … I made a list the other day, and I was amazed at how much I had accomplished … There are other days that seem to drag on with nothing productive being done … very frustrating … So, I drone on … I would share some links to a couple of these sites, but most seem to want to be all secretive until they’re ready to launch … Oh well, that’s cool I guess …

Still waiting …

Haven’t heard anything new yet … My “buddy” tells me that they hire slowly there … That’s cool cause I can wait it out … I’m not in a dire need to move on, it’s just a desire, so I can be very selective … I mean if this doesn’t turn out to be the best thing in my opinion, I have two more paths to consider, and in today’s newspaper, there is a web design job that is advertising $120K/yr.

Wow! He’s Quick …

Being I wrote him a long message, and he simply answered the direct questions, I’ll share it here:

Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 18:11:51 -0400
From: “Eric S. Raymond” To: David Pierron
Subject: Re: One Simple Question, Well, Two
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Organization: Eric Conspiracy Secret Labs X-Eric-Conspiracy: There is no conspiracy

David Pierron:
Question #1: I learned of you directly from a movie called “Revolution OS” as well as everyone else in that movie besides Linus Torvalds … As I watched it again recently, I started poking around the Internet and found web sites, etc … But I have noticed that on these sites, I really see no reference to that movie. Is Revolution OS not held in any sort of high regard?

A lot of people like it. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be mentioned everywhere.

Question #2: Why didn’t the GNU project ever finish their project (kernel) even after the availability of Linux?

Conflicting objectives, poor leadership, and a development group that was too small and inbred.
—
Eric S. Raymond

I still wonder why no one picked up on that project … If not for the simple fact to have a choice between a monolithic GNU and a GNU micro kernel? Then again, I can picture Linus in his smug way saying ‘why bother when I have already written a more efficient kernel?’ … Not to say he’s a smug individual, but he does have a way about him that I think you know when he’s answering a question that he thinks he need not be answering … Anyway, now I have something to say to Letterman when I make the trek on up to New York City … but, I will never go … so … it remains here …

ESR Email

Well, I sent off an email to Eric Raymond asking a couple questions that I was wondering about … I tried not to be too long in that I usually type very long email messages … I have been doing research on those people who talked in the Revolution OS movie … I am realizing a history that went on while I was doing other things like playing with IBM Mainframes and Minis … eventually to the Micros and the rest is history for me … So, now I choose to get into the Linux/FreeBSD world … and I am not only realizing the benefits of the models, I am also realizing the philosophy behind them … We’ll see if he replies … and we’ll see if I can share that with anyone … Eric reminds me a lot of my brother Bill … Bill certainly was in this league of distinguished gentlemen and I’m certain could have accomplished the same if not more … but he like myself worked on IBM Mainframes … But, when I inherited his PCs from his New York apartment, one of them had and old Red Hat version on it … We never talked about Linux … only C and Assembler …

Hackers

As I mentioned in another item, I watched Revolution OS again recently .. well, yesterday. I have decided to put together a page somewhere to “honor” these individuals … I myself don’t think I am of the abilty to contribute to their source tree, so I at least can honor them by educating people, however much I can, in the ways that these things came about and why it is how things came to be in the online world. It is of my opinion that the World Wide Web exists due to the government, universities and Unix hackers. Either that or Al Gore … It is a great story how hobbyist hackers influenced mainstream corporate America … and this took place world-wide … But after all, Linus Torvalds moved to America …

Interview Time?

Took my sleepy Monday with me down to the computer room about 1pm, and there was Mike working on the paper … He had arrived around 11:30am I guess … I moved the mice on the machines to wake up the screens, and I guess this activated myself as being “around” on the chat engines cause my “buddy” asked me if his work had called me for an interview … Of course there was an email from him at 7:44am, but who gets up that early? Actually, I usually would have got that a couple hours before I went to bed, but last night was bumming on the couch and watching movies that I’ve already seen … 7:44am? Do people regularly get up that early? I mean, every day? … and at that time have the faculties to send email? … Wow!

Site Updates

Have been making some site updates on the main ICUHost.Net web site … Guess it’s about time that I give the FreeBSD portion of the network its due … Plus there were some old email addresses on there that still pointed to the .com domain … Although they were still good, I just thought it should all be .net … It’s genuinely tough to express what it is that makes us any different from any other web hosting provider … Especially given the fact that it’s from a hobbyists point of view mainly … Read “hobbyist” as hacker … I hack these machines to work together in what I feel is the proper manner in which to satisfy the needs of myself and hope that that genuinely relates into the way that others would want things … I watched Revolution OS again … It is truly a great piece of work …

Kids

Today my 6 year old son is graduating kindergarten … at the same time, my 18 year old son from my first marriage is in the hospital with his 19 year old girlfriend trying to induce labor on their baby … I am going to be a grandfather … My 2 and a half year old son likes The Wiggles, Inspector Gadget, Small Soldiers and Blues Clues. My 6 year old and 2 and a half year old sons are going to be uncles … If by chance I have another child, they will be younger than their nephew …. Is that legal?