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the "pre-blog polls", now reside bellow the blog. please jump to the end of the page to have a little vote in them, just for fun. :)

... now, on with the rambling blog!

Wednesday 28 July 2010

dd CHAAAAAARGE!

i'm about ready to wipe my
nasty infected, neglected, rejected, windoze, n what does it do,
it gives my wine a flue,
just right before she goes.

...
that's it... anything else i've missed in my epic dvd backupiing over the past wee while can wait... this is it... i'm going in... dd! CHAAAARGE!



next pc i swear... no more windows tax!


here we go, wheeeeee. joy!

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1

(KIND WARNING ^^ DONT ENTER THAT INTO YOUR TERMINAL AS ROOT UNLESS U WANT TO WIPE YOUR FIRST HD'S FIRST PARTITIONS CONTENT IRRETRIEVABLY. SERIOUSLY DONT! NO! STOP.)

dd is ... godly.


also, never actually charge into issuing a dd command to your computer, heck no... that kind of thing demands a bit of a check proceedure to follow...

1, are you sure that's the right command?
2, are you sure that's the right way around, in file, out file?
3, are you sure that's the right command?
4, are you sure that's the right location for the in file?
5, are you sure that's the right location for the out file?
6, are you sure that's the right options and arguments?
7, slap your self in the face,
8, are you sure that's the right command?
9, are you sure that's the right way around, in file, out file?
10, are you sure that's the right command?
11, are you sure that's the right location for the in file?
12, are you sure that's the right location for the out file?
13, are you sure that's the right options and arguments?
14, are you sure you have them the right way around?
15, are you sure you know what it means by if?
16, are you sure you understand the consequences of of?
17, have you got the syntax right?
18, are you sure you have the syntax right?
19, have you double checked with a separate source if you have the syntax right?
20, have you checked to see if you really do have the if and of the right way around?
21, are you really sure you want to do this?
22, you have checked to make absolutely certain the only copy of the bloomingfeild report isnt left in what you are about to destroy with the of?
23, have you made certain this is what you want to do?
24, have you made sure this is what you want to do?
25, read 27, then 26.
26, walk away.
27, and then come back after doing 26.
28, are you sure you have the right locations and the right order of in file and out file??
...

some time later..


124, if you answered yes to all of 83 to 123, are you now fully certain of all the criteria you have to be certain of?
125, are you sure?
126, are you sure?
127, are you sure?
128, are you sure?
129, are you sure?
130, are you sure you are sure?
131, are you sure that if the next question were about what you originally were sure of, you'd be able to competently and accurately and correctly answer it?
132, what were you originally sure of?
133, are you sure?
134, where does that take it from?
135, where does that put it to?
136, are you sure?
137, repeat the now familiar walk away and come maneuver which you should by now have completed at least three times, possibly seven.
138, cup your face in your hands and say "am i sure?"
139, repeat, but this time, shake your head as you say it. did it feel any less certain?
140, are you certain of anything, is that chair really there, are any of us, is it all imagination, illusion or mere projection?
141, will anyone die if you get this wrong?
142, are you sure you have fully made sense of what's the in file and what's the out file?
143, did you just copy a command you found in a websearch and have just been winging it by answering yes to every question?
144, if you answered yes to 143, go back to 47 and repeat the walk away, pause, come back maneuver on
...

some time later,

219, looking at it still sat there waiting for your password, focus... are you sure? if sure, proceed to 220, if unsure, return to question 151.
220, you've already made the decision, now you have to understand why.
221, do you understand why? if not, go back to 25.
222, and you've still got time left to ensure the machine will be free to run this for the forseeable future without any impinging consequence?
223, and you're sure you're sure you've got the if and of the right way around?
224, and certain you want/need it done?
225, ok then, press enter,

YOU ARE NOW THE DATA DESTROYER MASTER! DATA DESTROYER IS NOW RUNNING!

226. ok, just um... wait, or whatever... do something else for a while.
227, look around and see if u can find anything that indicates you got it wrong, and you've done something horribly wrong.
228, if you find something, run through questions 125-130, as if you were asking yourself if you are sure you need to do a drastic abort.
229, if you didnt find anything, keep looking for a while, until you are fairly confident you are past the point of no return.
230, await paitently for it to finish (which may indeed be ages), and repeat 227.
231, job done.




but today, i think instead of the checks, i'm just going to go, GUNG HO! CHAAAAARGE!

Saturday 24 July 2010

feed the contributor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoYL4R3Te2s

just been enjoying this video about all linux's weakspots and what can we do about it.

payment systems, like flattr might help add some of the encouragement he speaks of.

"like to eat"

that's basically the primary issue behind this need for money...

how about we cut out the middle man tho?

the room we use for our computer, we aught fill with vertical hydroponics on every wall space, to provide food. berries, grapes, toms, aubergines, peppers, melons, and on and on, all grow really well from hydroponics.

yeah, ok, sure, that costs money too, it doesnt completely avert the issue, but it does make the whole thing more efficient.

more cost effective, economical, ecological, environmental, yada yada... the benefits of this knock on in numerous interesting ways, for one example, the oxygen produced and the carbon dioxide absorbed by the plants helps to keep the human component of your computer running well, and when that component runs well, there are less pebcak errors, and the world becomes a better place.

Monday 12 July 2010

this week, i 'av mostly been... blendering

http://omploader.org/vNHZvNw/picoconstructionpreview000.png
 http://omploader.org/vNHcwYQ/picoconstructionpreview002.png
http://omploader.org/vNHd3bg/picoconstructionpreview003.png


just a little ditty i've been spending a little portion on each day.  in an inspired moment, i sketched it out on paper first, and since then, i've been rediscovering blender... blender 2.5alpha2 to be precise.   ...and it's way easier and flowing than 2.49b  ... although... there's a minor niggle of window pane management... havnt figured out how to close new panes yet.


anyways, this little bike/car thing... i'm working on doing it right, so that this can be an actual design template.   it's still utterly early on in the construction...  just the chassis, tires, window/door, mudgaurds and much of the steering rig-up so far.   but i've loads of cunning ideas for it.


the vision i had for it, is for low-down, maximum visibility, component simplicity, down-force, form following function, a real driver's experience kind of deal, everything compact and lean, much like my dream linux distro.   i am often thinking on such analogies of distros to cars. 


every little bit i put on it, i tweak and re-tweak many times over.
not seen in these preview renders is the skeleton humanoid frame, hunkered down in his race-ready seating possition.


i suppose in some ways, this has been partly inspired by my friend's new lotus elise, which i've been out in a couple of times.  lotus's general modus opperandi, as i recall jeremy clarkson once saying, "is to simplify, and add lightness".  this thing is looking set to be so light, i've had to be thinking where i could ADD weight, just to make sure the thing will stay on the ground or have enough weight above the powered wheel.


engine-wise, i've still to get to that part.
i'm not the most nerdy when it comes to traditional combustion engines, but as you might expect from a free software geek, i dont mind reading up about more exotic options.  so besides the GEET implosion engine, and electric engines, i am actually very very keen on the idea of those combustion engines which instead of using pistons and combustion chambers that are rather 1 dimensional, and which the energy then has to be mechanically transfered yada yada.... there's those mad ones that are um....  cyclical...  the explosion chamber is integrated more deeply into the whole thing, and the rotary motion is perpetually pushed in one direction... around and around, rather than pistons having to waste energy on fighting the inertia of back and forth... i'll have to look them up again on http://peswiki.com/  ( http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Engines )so i remember who came up with them, and what they're called.   suffice to say, you get to fit the power of a normal car engine, into the size of a cd-rom drive.   ...so i was thinking of upscaling it a bit more.  ;)



ideally, i'd just throw some john hutchinson inspired zero-point energy battery/generator devices in it, and maybe some unity bending power ramp up stuff, but i dont want to make myself any bigger a target for corporate / secret-gov / OPEC / etc b[w]ankers to take me out.  ;D


but anyways, i do like the idea of only one gear... in which case electric would be the way to go... and then that would add all the weight i want, i could pepper the floor and rear with heavy batteries....   :/



oh it's good being free to play n dream up these things.

( /me considers including a dozen talk links from ted.com focussing on the value of play, and experimentation, and goal-less development, and exploration of ideas, and what incentives do, and what motivates people...  but that might get in the way o all i really wanted to focus on for this ramble...  blender & my little fun ditty )

track-day, road-car, or mere concept-car... i dont mind, i just like the creative process.  :)   the inspired evolution of ideas, the spontaneous a-ha ideas, the reveling in imagination, the hands-on manifestation, the...    you get the idea.  :)

i'll likely be back with updates to this.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

hypnobash. XD

if you have leafpad installed (reccomended not open, especially with unsaved files), you can run this from terminal, or from gmrun, or whatever the kde version of gmrun is (krun?), just simply copy and paste.

(if u dont have leafpad, u can find/replace all instances of "leafpad" for gedit, or kedit/kwrite/kate, or mousepad, or whatever lightweight gui text editor you have.)


echo look into my eyes >> hypno1 && leafpad hypno1 & sleep 2 && pkill leafpad && echo you are feeling very sleepy >> hypno2 && leafpad hypno2 & sleep 2 && pkill leafpad && sleep1 && echo "you are falling asleep" >> hypno3 && leafpad hypno3 & sleep 2 && pkill leafpad && sleep 1 && echo "now you are under my spell and will do whatever i command" >> hypno4 && leafpad hypno4 & sleep 2 && pkill leafpad && sleep 1 && "echo you are now a squid wearing a tutu performaing for the queen of the mushroom people" >> hypno5 && leafpad hypno5 & sleep 4 && pkill leafpad && sleep 1 && echo "wide awake now, wakey wakey, all good, fully awake, refreshed, there we go." >> hypno6 && leafpad hypno6 & sleep 3 && pkill leafpad && sleep 2 && echo "you had a dance or performance you said you were going to do...?" >> hypno7 && leafpad hypno7 & sleep 4 && pkill leafpad && sleep 12 && echo "aaaand sleep" >> hypno8 && leafpad hypno8 & sleep 3 && pkill leafpad && echo "echo you will now email your passwords to theduckis@gmx.com" >> hypno9 && leafpad hypno9 & sleep 4 && pkill leafpad && rm hypno*


XD   something like that.  XD   just a fun idea that'd help uhh... optimise your computer to be 4 times faster.   XD

Tuesday 6 July 2010

an odd M$ phonecall

an indian voice just called my dad, claiming he was from microsoft, he asked to confirm my dad's identity, and then informed him "there's been a complaint", and hung up.

my dad then checked what the last caller's number was, and the BT voice from 1471 said the callers number is "01234567890", then when trying to ring this number, it rings twice, and then another bt auto voice says there's no such number, and to try again.

   :/   ... 
  
   seriously,
  
   wtf?
  
      are these veiled threats to households detected to be using something other than M$ windows?  some prank?  a mistake?





edit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres

Sunday 4 July 2010

let me introduce freedomware (like "linux") to you...

it's not windows, and it's not mac. it's not even proprietary!
gnu|linux lets you do what you want with it. which obviously cant be said for windows and mac. it's free. liberated software.

millions of people all around the world are contributing to this kind of free software, where ideas are shared freely, for the benefit of all, rather than hoarded, for the profit of the few. this has been going on for some time now, and with increasing numbers of users and contributors alike, which has caused such free software to far surpass that of the commercial proprietary (hoarding & secrecy model) software, which is generally only developed by smaller numbers, hands tied by restrictive liscencing.

not just some single perspective of what is "objectively" the ambigious "better", but a rich diversity of choice, allowing not only a broad selection of many things that are likely to be closer to your tastes, but also the freedom to take it and make it closer to your tastes, and incorporate your own ideas, or ideas and code from others whove created things you like.

this community of sharing is, by comparison, drastically missing in windows users and mac users, and i presume same with all proprietary software. it's clear though, from how much windows users casually break the law and copy software which the licenses do not give permission to make such copies, that these people also have this dessire for comunity, sharing, and the freedom of ideas, information, like their software. ... so, how about hey just get on board with the freedomware?

fsf.org
gnu.org

kick it!

Friday 2 July 2010

freedomwhere

we could live on the northpole like gypsies if we had a community of amphibious caravans with water powered engines. i mean, flying&submarine ones too of course. some type of fabricating device, like the reprap, but more evolved, likely including a geet engine or the like, which can be tuned to produce different elements, as well as "print" out a complex construction (yes, a star treck replicator then, but in real existing technology terms). that way we could construct our own hydroponics equipment too, water purifiers, heaters, replacement replicators, replacement whatevers, new designs, anything we need... and the technology exists... now tell me my hippie anarcho-socialist dream is ecconomically unviable. :P

lets start cracking on with constructing those n getting them out to people eh?

;)

freedomware

this was gonna be a long rant, and full on rational walkthrough explanation of why "freedomware" rather than "free software", and certainly not just "opensource", which is just to get bidniz peeps on board, n we aught to forever remember the importance of our freedom.

...instead i'll keep it relatively short.

free software, sounds like freeware, in that it's available at no cost. and while that may be true, that's not the main point. the main point is that you are free to do with it what you please, so long as you let others continue to have the same freedom to do what they want with it.

freedomware, a term, as far as i am aware, i've come up with myself, seems to do the job much better.

free, sounds like price.

freedom, sounds like.... freedom!

Richard Stallman, in many of his many eloquent talks, mentions how the english language has a quirk that prevents us from conveying freedoms the same way some other languages can, like with libre/liberty... liberty software would have even been better. but it cracks me up to hear Richard say the english language inhibits us from conveying freedom in a word. ....

... how about... um....

freedom!

anyways, just an idea that seems painfully obvious to me every time i hear foss, opensource, freesoftware and the like.

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