installfest experience

All kinds of people showed up. I met half the bio-informatics people from Seneca's grad program. I was wearing a 'Linux Installer' name tag, but in reality, I was there to learn from the experts. They didn't let me down. I learned a lot - just scratching the surface though.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25612516@N08/


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SPR720 Lab, compile and run SQLite

Our Lab involved getting the source for something interesting and compiling and using it. It was fun to do: there were no dependencies issues and all went well. I had trouble trying to talk sql with it though but the prof had it working properly in a minute. I'll experiment with it a bit as I want to put some practice web db stuff on my matrix account. Good fun!

sqlite> CREATE TABLE `symbols` (
...> `id` int(11),
...> `country` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
...> `animal` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '');
sqlite> INSERT INTO `symbols` VALUES (1, 'America', 'eagle');
sqlite> INSERT INTO `symbols` VALUES (2, 'China', 'dragon');
sqlite> INSERT INTO `symbols` VALUES (3, 'England', 'lion');
sqlite> INSERT INTO `symbols` VALUES (4, 'India', 'tiger');
sqlite> INSERT INTO `symbols` VALUES (5, 'Australia', 'kangaroo');
sqlite> INSERT INTO `symbols` VALUES (6, 'Norway', 'elk');
sqlite> select * from symbole;
SQL error: no such table: symbole
sqlite> select * from symbols;
1|America|eagle
2|China|dragon
3|England|lion
4|India|tiger
5|Australia|kangaroo
6|Norway|elk
sqlite>


Figure out how to change these connect and select statements to sqlite this will be useful
// open connection
$connection = mysql_connect($host, $user, $pass) or die ("Unable to connect!");
// select database
mysql_select_db($db) or die ("Unable to select database!");
// create query
$query = "SELECT * FROM $symbols";
// execute query
$result = mysql_query($query) or die ("Error in query: $query. ".mysql_error());

holland open

thought it was a golf tournament

UPDATE --- Major Project Selection

This last Saturday, I had the opportunity to see many Linux instalations taking place at Seneca College's Linux Installfest. Due to the fact that Seneca is well connected with the Fedora Linux distribution community, I had expected to see a lot of Fedora installations.

What I saw was an overall preference for Ubuntu Linux. Most installations seem to be dual boot Ubuntu and Windows Vista systems. I am new to Ubuntu (I use Fedora) but Ihave noticed that Ubuntu is being discussed more than other distributions on forums I follow: techsoup.org for one. I am curious about why this distribution seems to have a wider following than other distros.

train is coming into the station so i have to go.

I plan to mention Wubi eventually...

There is a negative comment/observation below which I will leave in tact to remind me how difficult I think this is.

I'll add a few \ns later:

Wubi is the brainchild of Agostino Russo. From what I understand, Ag or xivulon, had monitored the experiences of people (normal people, not programmers) with regards to attempting to switch from licenced OSes to free systems like Linux. He noticed that people were struggling with the fundamentals like running fdisk and everything todo with partitions. So he automated the process. As he puts it (actually mmy paraphrase), 'in Windows, you click on a windows executable (say wubi-installer.exe) answer a couple of questions then go get yourself a coffee and when you get back it will be done - you reboot and you have a dual-bootsystem. Now that is cool. It should come as no surprise that Linux systems are more and more into the mainstream. It is my belief that Linux distributers must adopt a new approach, a new mindset wwith regards to attracting users. Users should be considered to be customers, clients whatever you want to call them but treat them like they were actually paying customers. I think that the whole Linux distribution system is broken. Because Linux is free, everybody, form software developers to distribution executives expect their users, their customers! to understand things that only system administrators should have to know. The other OSes don't do that - they never have done it. Ask any MS Windows user what she thinks of fdisk and you will get nothing but a funny look - and rightly so because WHO CARES!!! SysAdmins yse, users no. It is the philisophy driving things like Wubi that is will fix the broken Linux distribution model More later.




Looking, but haven't got there yet. After briefly thinking about the 'Wubi - port to Fedora' I have definitely ruled that one out. My thinking is that one needs solid grounding in at least on of those OS to start with - I don't have that.

Thought on it though: Great idea! I think that it is things like Wubi that will enable Windows users to make the leap...

Noticed that somewhere on some forum ut was called 'Linux for cowards'; hey I love it.

Looking at creating 'Windows migration tool' now (on fedorproject site summer of code 2008).
You see I do think migration is a very important topic.

network stuff (notes from nad710)

nothing here yet -

X window (notes from xwn740)

nothing here yet -

LPT370 Assignment 1

software patents

the good, the bad, and the ... (already been said)

Using technology to engineer social change?? How on earth could technology be used to affect the human psyche.

"While an algorithm standing alone can't be patented, if it can be demonstrated that that algorithm can achieve some commercial aim in its application in software, well ... that's patentable. Well duh" - Mark Webbink - Truth Happens

look and listen here:
http://truthhappens.redhatmagazine.com/2007/10/19/mark-webbink-on-software-patents/

Sure seems like a complicated subject: all these genius lawyer types butting heads over things I can can barely grasp at all: I even get stuck on the algorithms.

But seriously, isn't the whole argument slightly inane? Nobody seems to be arguing that patents are wrong the whole peer-to-patent thing is fighting to improve the process of patenting. So, patents are good, patent protection is good and everything for sale in the marketplace is good. The bad - well that must be those folks we don't agree with, the ones who patented that single click mouse thing. Reminds me of the old saw about everything being for sale - it is the 'price' that is to be negotiated.

I gather, from listening to Webbink, that packaging (the algorithm) has a lot to do with it being patentable hence sale-able. It is software that has to demonstrate the ability to satisfy a commercial aim to be patentable.

That is all well and good but, it is the standalone algorithm - the art - in the Art of Computer Programming (see Knuth, 1968), that should be patentable - make them prints for the wall! Yes, make it art we can use but patent it for what it really is - and yes, lets sell it too.

Oh and there is a nice message in the preface of the book (the image at the top of the post).

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What is with bill C-61

Was that visual basic © running on the gov't website? So I need VB to get a government job?

I usually leave this type of stuff to the thinkers but since I have to...
I'll spend a few minutes researching C-61 then a few more lying about it.

Oh boy! This looks ominous - what have they got to do with the Internet anyway. I thought the whole idea behind it was the global village, it's sans frontiers - none of their business.

From the federal website.

C-61 SUMMARY
This enactment amends the Copyright Act in order to
(a) update the rights and protections of copyright owners to better address the Internet, in line with international standards;
(b) clarify the liability of Internet service providers;
(c) permit certain uses for educational and research purposes of Internet and other digital technologies to facilitate technology-enhanced learning, inter-library loans, the delivery of educational material and access to publicly available material on the Internet;
(d) permit certain uses of copyright material for private purposes; and
(e) amend provisions of the Act relating to photographs to give photographers the same rights as other creators.



If they would just stop mentioning networks and the Internet I could probably overlook this.
I prefer not to get involved but sometimes - it's hold my coat and give me a rock -
I recall, in an earlier lifetime, a lady I knew was stopped boarding the DC-9 at Timmins airport as she was carrying a large bread knife (might have been in her purse she never got on the plane), well, Kiki Lapier was on her way to Ottawa to straighten out one PET - bare with me if this seems slightly off topic, it is a tale of righteous indignation - you see Kiki (she was a lady who never took authority well) had a 4*8 sign on the roof of her house that simply said 'seat belt law fuddle duddle', she had had enough.

Oh, sorry to go off topic. Anyway, in honor of Kiki and her personal crusade, until the C-61 issue is resolved, though I may buckle up I vow to silently utter that oath - fuddle duddle - whenever I do. And, more than that comrades ... at least in my mind, I'll see you on the barricades.

SPR720 Command Lab

Linux commands

and comfort zones: some thoughts and a comment on the lab
dos 6 (©) was pretty cool: I got used to it and I liked the simplicity (if only I could have connected the network with those borrowed token ring cards). Still, it was a great environment to try out that Bor£and compiler though.

I've always found the Unix directory
structure confusing. Even after
getting fairly comfortable as a user
the file system remained a mystery.
Thankfully, the whole user experience
is getting easier as Linux
distributions evolve.

In Lab #0 we took a look at what is
in all those 'bin' directories.

What is with all these bin directories
anyway? That is one of the things that
always made me uncomfortable:
especially when I was trying to find
something. To me, the absolute worst
feeling was downloading installing something and having no idea where all that stuff has gone or even what exactly I had installed (doc filesuseful tools...).
Hey, usually everything worked but I was clueless and usually had to 'get back to work' so no time to spend exploring.

Coming from a dos background, I wanted and expected to know where things were. Put ActivePerl on a Windows machine and you get one directory, say C:\>perl and all that neat stuff is in there; dead easy to browse the docs, look at the samples - I guess it didn't make Perl any easier though.

About the Lab: we took a look at what was in those bin directories, each file (maybe not the thousands in /usr/bin) or at leas some of them; we found 25 files we didn't know and did a little research on them - man pages, info, --help etc. Then think about what was going on withe the different dierectories. There is obviously rhyme and reason for the structure, the multiple bin directories.

First of all, the Lab was deceptively simple. It took a lot longer than I tought it would. I spent time looking at all those /usr/bin/mysql* files that I knew (from my C:\>mysql directory) were around - I will have to go back there and do that some more. I discovered lots of little thing that were interesting. I'd started out with the intention of looking at all the two letter commands as they tend to be the heart and soul of Unix systems, powerful little things that the gurus pipe things to and all that. I discovered a whole lot of z* commands that deal with compressed files - those are not in my comfort zone yet.

Anyway, I made some minor conclusions (temporary and ready to be rewritten) about the reason for the multiple bin directories. Part of it has to be historic - that is the way we've always done it - but there is definitely a seperation of system stuff from user stuff (who is the system and who is the user...).

Out of time...

SYA710 Lab 0

Hardware based data recovery is definitely a plus in a volatile environment such as the Seneca Lab.
Without even considering the possibility of malicious attacks - rather thinking about accidental or inadvertent mishaps - this Lab has people who are new to the system and need to experiment to get
their work done. Accidents do happen: people delete files and sometimes something gets trashed that should have been left alone - everybody who spends a lot of time working on computers has done it at some time. So in the Seneca Lab it makes good sense to take this proactive step.

The same surely cannot be a good thing when applied to workstations that are used by people doing serious work that involves the need to set up special environments and have job-specific tools on their computer. I would have to think that traditional timely backups would provide a sufficient protection for recovery.

This Lab was useful in that it actually demonstrated that the recovery does work. If somebody told me that it worked but I didn't prove it I would likely have a slight doubt in the back of my mind - does it really work; maybe it works sometimes...

The one problem that I had with the lab (the assignment) was that my scp command doesn't seem to be doing what i thought it would. The command (scp lab00.txt xxxx@xxxxxx.senecac.on.ca )
executes without any message - no challenge for password - but doesn't copy the file. I am executing the command from home and my network connection is working as i could mail the file to myself. I just tried scp xxxx@xxxxxx.senecac.on.ca: laboo.txt it connects, authenticates but gives the message 'scp: .: not a regular file'

LPT370 Assignment 0

Temeraire on its way to the breakers

Time_to_do_things_differently

LPT370 assignment 0.

XV - Cool image manipulation tool for X Windows. Shareware (not open source but the source code is available).
http://trilon.com

This tool has been around longer than the Web. Its author even calls it a 90s type image editor. I think that was when I first used it. The really interesting thing about this tool is that I can do the same things with it that I do with Photoshop, PaintShop and other 'humungus' tools. But there again I only do really basic things so don't throw away the big tools just keep this one handy for lightweight needs.

I found this tool was mentioned in a tutorial about streaming images a byte at a time and the demo showed a GIF image with a small colour table that was easy to change (and easy to see the effects due to the limited number of colours).

The image (from the tutorial mentioned above) has only a small number of colours as can be seen in the editors view of the vx colour editor. By simply clicking a button (or manually text editing the colour map itself) xv lets you manipulate the colours of the image. For example, in the image below the colour table was rewritten by clicking the 'grey' button. The really interesting thing about tools like this is that they can be used in conjunction with other tools programatically. When I use Photoshop I don't even think about what is going on behind the UI. With a tool like this the whole editing process takes on a different feel. Tools like this invite the user to think about what is going on. Sure, the algorithms would be the same whether one edits with Photoshop or xv but xv lets me feel 'in control': nice illusion :)

---

SL

Client

A brief description of the Second Life client. First, although it is usually a surprise to SL users, not everybody knows about it.

A couple of difinitions:

From the website http://secondlife.com we get "Second Life is an online, 3D virtual world imagined and created by its residents" (residents == users?).

Googling 'what is second life' gives an assortment saying, typically: "Second Life is an online 3D interactive virtual reality program which resembles console video games such as Final Fantasy, but is almost entirely built and influenced by the people who use it. 'In world', you use a highly-customisable avatar to explore the thousands of places to visit, build and interact with the world and other users."

SL has a marketplace, institutions, movements pretty much like the real world as people map their experience from one life to the other.

The SL client or viewer is works like a web browser but everything is 3D. One idea is that it what the rest of the web browsers will look and feel like in a couple of years. Through the viewer communication with other 'residents' in chat like fashion or using voice. The viewer has functionality to search, shop and generally do things one does on the Web with a browser in real life (RL) except it is within the virtual world. All of this happens in a highly developed 3D environment.

The SL client riquires a reasonably powerful computer due to the graphics. The source code for the viewer is apparently now in the public domain.

i'm a rookie but this is ... well what it is


http://www.youtube.com/v/m3TD1hty0Aw&hl=en&fs
from the author:
an introduction to Second Life at the Summer institute on teaching and technology at University of California Davis - joint presentation and workshop by Milmon, Bernadette and Sandy (Harrison Held, HVX Silverstar and Agnesa Capalini in SL).
if watched in the 'high quality' the annotations do not show (bug in youtube's annotations feature... but still a very cool feature.
you can add callouts, labels and tag sections of the video. There is also an option to add a hyperlink to the rollovers, but if you follow the hyperlinks you will lose your spot in the movie.. it is not yet that intelligent
but cool that you can add a link to another youtube movie at the end of your own video..
only links to youtube vids allowed.
There's an avatar taking a look around a music shop... and he's sporting a Tux T... the official mascot of the Linux kernel... because it's waaaaay cool.

begin again - this is about me

I think I could if I only knew how to begin.
Is that a quote from Lewis Carroll?
If you know let me know.

something about myself
16.5 high school credits, electronic engineering techniques diploma (seneca'81), ba english (york'94), ba computer Science (york'99), some open university grad credits, ged'06



I like old artifacts, cars in fact, but all things related - it it the little things in them, the period guages, the steel with hand made compound high crown curves hand formed, leather and wood - oh and the wind in the hair.

href="http://slowtek.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/hi this is where my personal stuff is (i am learning wordpress)



i'll finish this later ...