Author: Machtyn

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Israel and Obama

President Buffoon… I mean Obama, is no friend of the Jewish people. He proved it again today. I’ve blogged about this issue before.

I always thought the US would always stand for Israel. But what President Obama is requesting is that Israel shrink itself to 8 miles wide, down from 45 miles. This would give the Palestinians fish in a barrel. They could easily lob their missiles anywhere into Israel. What’s amazing is that there is at least one Jewish group, J Street, that supports “wholeheartedly” what the President has said.

As I said, I always thought we’d support Israel, I NEVER thought we’d be the ones that would enable Israel’s enemies to begin the events foretold in Revelations. It would be interesting if Romney gets elected and is President during the Second Coming.

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Thunder Over Louisville: 2011 Edition

WOW! That was a really awesome fireworks display. And I’m not just saying that. It has been years since I’ve been pleased with their display. What is the reason for this my previous displeasure and my current satisfaction? MUSIC. That’s right, in past years the music took me out of the moment of the fireworks, but this year it was the correct mixture and the synchronization between the fireworks and music was beautiful. I’ll explain.

First, one of the things that really bothers me with compilation music are the transitions. It is almost never good to go from country to rock to orchestral to soft rock and a mixture of whatever. In past years, I muted the TV so I wouldn’t lose concentration on the beauty of the fireworks. This year was different. They used all orchestral, big band, and other types of music. Very few pieces had words in it. The ones that did went along with the overall theme and didn’t break the flow. There were some rough transitions, but nothing like in previous years. If the Thunder Over Louisville producers want to have another successful year next year, they need to stay away from most hip hop, country, pop, etc music and stay with the classical, orchestral, and similar styles of music. Plus, it’s easier to synchronize the fireworks with it – you can crescendo the fireworks in time with the music (which they did two or three times during this show).

The second reason why this year’s Thunder was spectacular were the new styles of fireworks they had on display. For several years, the fireworks were mostly the same with one or two new styles thrown in. But they were difficult to see or notice because they were drowned out by the other fireworks. I saw four or five, at least, new styles this year. The ones that impressed me the most were the short shots off the bridge. At the beginning of the show, there were rockets that streamed off the bridge, then spiraled inward. There was another short shot with a nice white/blue color that mostly fired straight up, but had a bit of randomness between the different cannons so that there was overlap between the streams. This was near the end of the show. Another piece that impressed me were a couple of bloom shots. Instead of having points spots, the bloom shot I liked most had smaller, more compact blooms where each point would have been. The array of colors in some of the shots were impressive.

The third reason why I like this year’s Thunder is that not only were the fireworks in sync with the music, but they were in sync with each other. Also, transitions between the different styles of fireworks was good. There was almost no downtime between shots – good job tech crew!

I have been mostly disappointed with the views the TV crews have given Thunder in the past. But they did a really good job this year. Or, perhaps, it’s because I was able to watch on a large, wide-screen TV. However, in years’ past, they would do close-ups, focus on a single barge too long, focus on a small section of bridge too long, something. But this year, they did a good job getting appropriate views of the entire scene (and, thankfully, no crowd shots… which sounds like a good view, but it’s not.)

So, I wonder will anyone from the Thunder organization trip into my blog post and take notes? I doubt it, but it would be nice, I wrote this mostly for them. Congratulations!

p.s. I’d post some pictures of shots from this year, but they haven’t been posted anywhere else, yet. And if they did, they’d probably be copyrighted.

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Wii Dismantled!

So, our old Nintendo Wii had bitten the dust. The disk drive didn’t work, it had taken a beating from being knocked off a shelf of some height (thanks Rachel), there was now a rattling in the case, and there was no power. So I did what any sensible geek would do with a device that was out of warranty – I dismantled it to try and find out why it was not working.

After taking out the case screws, and taking out the disk drive, the nail that was rattling inside fell out. No, I didn’t know it was a nail before. Again, thank you Rachel!

Well, there was still this power issue to resolve. So off came the aluminum plating that separated the main board from the disk drive and everything else. I plug everything back in and powered it up – nothing. So I pull out my trusty Radio Shack multimeter which had broken within a few weeks of my purchasing it. Yep, the thing is still broken (I’ve learned recently, I need to replace the fuse in the thing.)

The next thing I do, which I should have done in the first place, got the power cable from our new Wii and plugged that in. Hey! Power! Turned it on, slid a disk in the drive and everything is working well. Well, except that the disk drive sound it like an engine (not good). Granted, it was out of its natural habitat with rubber grommets for shock absorbers.

So it was time to put it all back together. I only had 2 extra screws left over. The thing still powered up, so it’s all good. Now we just need to get a replacement for the old power adapter.

Next thing to do? Dismantle the Guitar Hero Drum kit. That one is a lost cause, though. (The hat’s wires have been cut.)

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Cake!

Tonight we went to a Scouting dinner and cake auction. Our Scout leaders do a really good job with this. The food is donated by a local Italian restaurant (a good one, too) and they don’t just auction cakes. In the line up for items to be auctioned was a repelling lesson, car washes by the scouts and service time by the scouts. The cakes and other items go from $10 to $150!

Well, I decided I would make a cake. I wanted to make a kitty litter cake, but I could not find a cheap, basic kitty litter box. So I made a normal cake…

Halo Cake

Props to you if you recognize the symbol. (If you need a clue, hover your mouse over the image, a little text box should pop up.) My target audience immediately recognized it and were duly impressed, so I was pleased. I was hoping it’d go for more, but $15 was what it went for.

Last year, we failed to jump in early and get anything… not a big deal. But this time we got a black forest chocolate cake for $15! We got lucky 🙂

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Geek topic of the day: Numbering Systems.

As you may or may not know, there are many ways to count. Many of you have heard of binary, decimal and hexadecimal (sometimes shortened to “hex”). Each of tXKCD 99, Binary Hearthese are ways to represent a value. For example, if we have eleven apples, we can say we have 11d, 0xB, or 1011b apples. If the numbering system is understood between both parties, it could be written as 11, B, or 1011. Obviously, I have these numbers in the order of decimal, hexadecimal, and binary.

There are many ways to represent a number and the three I mentioned aren’t the only ones. If you want base5, your numbers are 0,1,2,3,4, or [0..4]. The number 8d would be 13 in base5. The number 54d in base 33 [0..9,A..W] would be 1L. Obviously, you have to define what your characters represent with numbers from another base. (In this case, A = 10d, L = 21d and W = 32d. 10 = 33d, 1W = 65d, 20 = 66d, and so on.)

Anyway, here is the reason this came up in my mind. There is an easy program which was needed at work. So they hacked out a simple VB (Visual Basic) script to get the necessary information. I would have preferred a “real” language which is also easy to program (such as C#). This would have the advantage of being fewer lines of code, not as bloated (still bloated), and can be compiled to an executable file (.exe).

Computer Language HierarchyOf course, I like to make things difficult while making it easy for others. I thought, why not do this in assembly language? It will be ultra fast and small and not be dependent on other systems (such as dotNET). So I found www.asmcommunity.net. It is a resource for people wanting to learn assembly language. The second chapter in their book is “Number Systems”

Here’s the wrap-up. The second to last sentence of their section on Base (what I explained above) is “Base-0 does not exist and you cannot do much with base-1.” Base 1 is easy, there is only one number – 0, if you will. Or 1. It doesn’t matter, there is only one character to represent the entire numbering system and there is nothing or that character – that’s it). In base 1, you could even make your only value, your only digit, Ψ.

This got me thinking about base 0, though. Base 0 has no values. It will have no characters. It is nothing – not even 0. It’s what happens when you divide by 0 – you can’t (excluding 0/0 which is ∞). Divided By Zero
This base system is really, completely useless… except to explain it like I have here.

Surprisingly, my little thought process here is not at all off, in fact it is quite on. Here is a post by someone else who has put in a lot more thought on off-beat numbering systems (a system based on pi, e, or i?!) . Scroll down a bit, he calls Base 0 “truly worthless” where I said “completely useless”. Funny.

On dwheeler’s closing remark about base 0 potentially representing all numbers (ie. 0/0), I disagree. A base 0 system has no characters to represent it. It is nothing (which is the same as not nothing, that is – doesn’t exist).

To close this up, enjoy two (10b) videos by They Might Be Giants which do a surprising good job of explaining ZERO and ONE

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Jeff the Handyman

So I got a little inspired today and decided I would fix one of our two toilets that need fixing. We only have two toilets, by the way. Anyway, it was an adventure for a couple of reasons – the fix was relatively easy.

The toilet I fixed was leaking out the handle. Yea, that’s weird. We figured out it was because when we flushed it, the cap on the intake shaft was probably clogged. Sure, I could have cleaned that, and I tried to figure out how to get to the dirty parts, but I decided after having done some research that it may be just as well to replace the thing. The other toilet, we have to hold the handle down to get it to flush properly. Yes, I could also probably just adjust a screw on the thing, but I think it has some other problems too.

The first reason it was an adventure is because I’ve never done this before. I did do the first thing right – turn off the water. But the next steps were not quite as obvious to me. Fortunately, the kit that I got, the FluidMaster Water Saving Dual Flushing System, had complete uninstall and install instructions. So, I figured out which screws to remove and in proper order. After verifying I was getting everything in proper (ensuring to cut the overflow tub to proper height – note: use a dremel tool, not a hacksaw as they suggest) it was time to put the screws in.

For as expensive as this kit is, they provided everything and great instructions. This included the brass bolts, rubber washer, metal washers and nut. Unfortunately for us, our tank had 1/4″ bolt holes and, apparently, the standard bolt hole for tanks is 5/16″. The hole was 1/16″ too tiny. I tried forcing a bolt in but ended up stripping it. So Rachel and I packed up and went shopping. After over an hour looking in both The Home Depot and Lowe’s, Rachel was very tired and I found out nobody has the 1/4″ bolt that is needed for this type of job.

I ended up getting a glass and tile drill bit. I was quite nervous about this because drilling into ceramic is a careful job. It also required running water through the hole while the drillbit was doing its thing otherwise it gets too hot. In any case, I was successful at creating the hole and not breaking my drill by getting water in it.

After that it was just checking to see if I had any leaks (I did and had to dismantle the tank 4 times before getting it on straight and tight enough.) Then it was fine tuning the float adjustments to maximize water saving with flushing power. So, here’s to saving water and water bill costs.

The whole job took me way longer than it should have. But having never done this before, I think I did good. The other toilet should not take nearly half as long to complete. The next challenge is to remember to flush UP when a light flush is needed.

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Painting by fingers (and toes and nose)

Jeff here. I’m hijacking Noelle’s blog for a moment. I do this rarely, but it is about the girls, so why not.

While Mommy was off to “no-no” practice, Rachel and Gabi decided they wanted to paint. After Daddy got some advice of we went. Here are the results!
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UofL’s epic win against Marquette

With 6.5 minutes to go in today’s UofL basketball game against Marquette, I had thrown in the towel. I’d seen this story many times before. I sent a text message to Noelle and told her it was over. Then Van Treese got a steal and dunk. Preston Knowles decided that the rim was no longer too small and started draining 3-pointers and I sent 4 or 5 more text messages to Noelle (because she was at a party and would be interested in these turn of events.) As it turns out, the response I got (That’s nice, but UK is better) was not really what I expected from her. I was sending these messages to my nephew, Austin. Oops. So, instead, I called and told Noelle the final events of the game. What was it? With 12.2 seconds left, UofL’s Preston Knowles got the ball, drove the lane, jumped to shoot; but, being triple defended, dished the ball to an open Kyle Kuric who scored a ring around the basket. UofL leads by 1, 71-70, with 4.0 seconds left. Marquette failed to score and UofL capped, what columnists are writing, a furious win.

Coach Pitino, in his post-game interview, called it a top 5 comeback win. Of course, we all know about UK’s epic win over LSU in 1994. UK was down by 31 points with 16 minutes left in the game. UK turned on their A-game and outscored the Tigers 62-27 to win the game 99-95.

This got me thinking. UK’s win is epic. It is still talked about in Kentucky. But how do these two games compare? Coach Pitino gets to notch his cap with another epic comeback win, sure, but if we analyze the numbers which is the greater comeback? UK allowed LSU to score 27 points in the final 16 minutes, UofL held Marquette to 7 points in the final 5. minutes. That’s 1 point every 35.6 seconds in UK v LSU compared to 1 point every 55.7 seconds in the UofL v Marq. Advantage UofL defense. On offense, UK scored 62 points in the final 16 minutes, or 1 point every 15.5 seconds. UofL scored 24 points in the final 5.2 minutes, or 1 point every 14.8 seconds. Advantage UofL offense. (Originally, I started counting at 6.5 minutes with Van Treese’s steal and UofL scoring 26 points. That’s 1 point every 15 seconds. But UofL was still down 18 with 5.2 minutes left.)

In other areas, LSU lost their point guard and missed free throws. Marquette had UofL in foul trouble the whole game, but couldn’t capitalize on it during the end. They also missed an important free throw series, scoring 1 of 2. I give the advantage to UofL on this, they were in foul trouble and were battling the full force of Marquette.

In both cases, the game came down to the last seconds. LSU made an errant baseball type inbound pass that was picked off and UofL was able to trouble Marquette’s lane running shooter enough that his shot was short. Both of these games were won by the same coach using similar tactics: pounding defense and tenacious pressing. It helped that the players started knocking down shots.

Being down by 31 points with 16 minutes left is usually a time when a coach or team throws in the towel and says, “Here’s a practice game, let’s make the best of it,” UK didn’t do that. Being down 18 points with 6.5 minutes left caused a large number of UofL fans to head to the door.

UK’s 1994 win over LSU is totally epic, but I think Pitino is right, today’s UofL win over Marquette should stand as a top 5 comeback win in NCAA Men’s Basketball – it may even be a bigger win than the UK game. The raw analytical numbers bear it out.

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Ubuntu LINUX! Yeah!


Okay, so I’ve been threatening to move my main computer to linux, Ubuntu specifically, for a very long time. A very, very long time. The problem was that Windows XP is a decent operating system. Sure it has its problems. It’s totally and completely insecure by itself. Microsoft claims we can’t pay them enough to not release a buggy operating system. Despite all that, most software developers, specifically game manufacturers and hardware manufacturers, develop their software exclusively for the Windows operating systems. Times are changing.

When Windows Vista arrived, people took a look at it. Due to a myriad of troubles, a lot of it Microsoft, but some of it due to computer vendors (Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, Sony, IBM, etc) the personal computer experience was abysmal. People started to look elsewhere. Most went to Apple. (WHAT are they thinking?! … I’ll leave that rant for another post.)

Anyway, due to mostly technical reasons and not liking being treated as the criminal, I vowed never to upgrade past Windows XP. Windows 7 has nearly made me change my mind. Microsoft has made a very good operating system with Windows 7. Still, I and the general consumer are not Microsoft’s customer. (Another topic and rant.)

Recently, my computer hard drive crashed. I thought of all sorts of hardware reasons as to why this might be, but I’ve finally figured it out… the part of the hard drive that stores critical boot information became corrupted. Everything I’ve tried has failed to restore it. Only just today have I been able to reliably access and retrieve my files.

But because of this hard drive failure, it has forced me to decide whether to reinstall Windows XP, spend $150 to upgrade to a Windows 7 (64-bit), or go Linux, I’ve decided I will make the plunge. Ubuntu, here I come!

I tell you what, this switch, while it has its problems, has been very, very nice. Canonical (the company the maintains the Ubuntu distribution of Debian Linux) has made the switch fairly seamless for the Windows users with their latest Ubuntu 10.10 release, Maverick Meerkat. Installation was a breeze and convenient. Absolutely any type of software I want to use is easily obtainable. Just use the Synaptics Package Manager to find the application you want, put a check mark on it, and click apply. It downloads the necessary files, installs the application, and places a link in the Applications toolbar (like the Start menu).

Much of the software you see on my sidebar started its life in the Linux world. OpenOffice.org (soon to be LibreOffice) is preloaded on the computer. It comes with a decent e-mail, instant messenger, news reader application in Evolution. I switched it out for Thunderbird (easy, easy). Firefox is preloaded, I just grabbed my add-ons and was off and running.

Oh, what about those games one might ask… Well, certainly the mainstream gaming applications (World of Warcraft, Half-Life, Oblivion, a bunch of others I had loaded on my computer). Well, there is an application called WINE (Windows Is Not Emulated). Long story behind the name, which included several lawsuits. But essentially, it allows a Linux based computer to load Windows specific applications on the computer and the application will barely know the difference.

One of the problems with the Linux world is that there devotees are sometimes very fanatical in their approach to software. For example, some in the Linux world are upset that Ubuntu will allow people to load “closed source” software on their systems. While I prefer open source software, I will use whatever works. What’s the point of all this? Adobe has dragged its feet for a very long time in making Flash work with Linux. Shortly after the Windows Vista debacle, they finally did it. Partly because, ooh!, the MacOS is somewhat Linux based. (Yes, I know it is BSD… I’m trying not to confuse everyone.) Also, more people were jumping to the Linux bandwagon (who wants to spend a 20% markup on hardware and be limited to just one source for more hardware and software on the Apple side of things). Finally, Redhat, Canonical, and Novell were all putting their weight on Adobe to finally release a working Flash application… and so they did. I have no trouble playing flash games watching youtube or hulu videos, etc.

The one problem I have… and this is rather disappointing, Netflix streaming will not work with Linux. Netflix has decided they will use Microsoft’s Silverlight code. Silverlight is like Adobe Flash. It’s like comparing a Toyota with a Ford. They’re both cars, but a Toyota will have its light knob placed in a different spot than a Ford. I was going to say it doesn’t work with Macintosh, but I suppose they did. Upon further reading it’s all about the DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) OK OK it’s Digital Rights Management… certainly not my right to consume the product for which I paid, though. (see my other rants on DRM.) Using a virtual machine (VirtualBox or VMWare Player), I will be able to use Netflix… but that will be a bit of a pain. (I’ve got to load Windows XP, ensure all software is up-to-date, ensure security software is proper, etc.)

So, I’m about 6 hours into total Ubuntu Linux immersion and I am liking it. … I’ve just spent 3 hours of not playing games to type up this post … The installation was extremely fast (20 minutes) and I was able to browse the Internet at the same time it was installing! (Take that Microsoft and your 1 hour install time with nothing to do but leave the computer, and then it is 1.5 hours minimum of updates and at least 3 reboots).

For those of you who think I’m taking the easy way out with Ubuntu… know that I have installed Gentoo Linux on a computer. That was several days worth of frustration because you are literally building your computer from scratch and compiling everything. (I spent a good 30+ hours on the thing, learning a whole lot, but not even ending up with a usable windows manager.) While this is a good exercise for learning, I don’t have that time at the moment. Just a couple of hours a night after the girls go to bed. Don’t, ya’ll worry, I’ll be knee deep in config files and the terminal before too long. I’ve got to get OpenSSH working without passwords, figure out why my Samba shares aren’t working properly, and get VNC up and running (and preferably through the SSH tunnel).

How’s that for an updated blog post?

On my TODO list:
* Figure out why Quicken 2008 is failing in Wine.
* Determine if I should bag it and install Windows XP in VirtualBox and run Quicken from that
* Decide if I want to spend $30 and get Moneydance to replace Quicken as my financial tracking software.
* Get MythTV working on the computer connected to the TV (mythbox)
* Get the mythbox connected to the TV, Internet, and configure MythTV software
* Configure the TV capture card in mythbox
* Get VirtualBox running on mythbox with Windows XP so Netflix can be utilized.
* Find a video editor suite or see if I can’t get Video Studio working in Linux.