July 31, 2003

I Hate Computers (part 2)

Addendum to yesterday's rant....

The hard drive on this server is toast. It is complaining via SMART that it is severely degraded and should be replaced immediately.

Lame.

To make matters worse, the local bike shop is down-sizing.

Posted by Enki at 06:58 AM | Comments (19) | TrackBack

July 30, 2003

I Hate Computers

Seems like computers in general hate me lately.

It used to be that computers would start to work magically as soon as I walked into the room (no kidding, ask some of my co-workers). Then I got cocky, and I think that they could smell that somehow (the computers, not my co-workers).

Now NOTHING works unless I build it myself, usually after extensive Makefile tweaking.

  • RantTV SSH,SFTP,SCP all died when the upgrade failed yesterday. Now I have to drive for two hours to go fix it.
  • Postview (now discontinued) is essential for Dyno data viewing for one of my workplaces. Died. No reason, and won't re-install
  • Gentoo won't even INSTALL on my new Asus Laptop
  • Maybe I'll go back to being a bike mechanic.

    Posted by Enki at 10:05 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

    July 29, 2003

    OS Woes

    Seems like a host of open source software has a personal grudge against me lately. Multiple packages fail utterly in my presence, usually because some useful, but moderately obscure feature has a glaring bug in it. Examples....

  • RedHat 9.093 has insufficient support for my new laptop
  • RedHat 9.093 won't recompile the kernel properly
  • Gnu Ghostscript has a resize bug when outputting mono ps files (fixed since I recompiled with GHostScript version 8)
  • So does ImageMagick (since it uses GhostScript, and also fixed now)
  • Maybe I should switch to Debian or Gentoo or something...

    Posted by Enki at 01:30 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack

    July 28, 2003

    Gah! StreamJacker Bug!!!

    I have been notified by Alpha736 that there is a bug in the NSV ripping for some users of streamjacker. Win32 users will find that files are named .avi instead of .nsv (which of course does not work). Here is the fix. Sorry about that.

    I am not exactly sure how it happened, but it looks like the way that py2exe works is by looking for a pre-compiled pyc file before even checking for a py file. If a pyc exists it assumes (perhaps incorrectly) that it is the newest version.

    I deleted all the pyc files, and that seems to have fixed the problem.

    Of course, all Linux/Unix and OSX users are not affected.

    Posted by Enki at 01:48 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

    Downloads Section

    I have added a download section to the right hand bar, near the bottom. Now you can get to StreamJacker (updated to 221b) even quicker!

    Posted by Enki at 01:00 PM | Comments (24) | TrackBack

    July 27, 2003

    Amazed at Wireless

    So I am sitting in front of Endoplasmic Studios "borrowing" their wireless connection in order to update my blog. I am amazed how many people have unsecured wireless connections. Not that they are that secure at the best of times.

    I will be meeting with James in a bit about projects for Rant Media. Looks like DIRT is more of a necessity every day.

    Fixed Links (ed)

    Posted by Enki at 02:05 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

    July 25, 2003

    StreamJacker 2.20b Tentative Release

    I am releasing streamjacker 2.20b, despite a few Linux niggles (errors on load from the stream list). Get it here:


    New features include:
    • Rudimentary book marks
    • Full NSV ripping
    • Full stream type auto-detection
    • Faster and more resilient network code
    • Improved threading library

    Posted by Enki at 03:12 PM | Comments (44) | TrackBack

    July 24, 2003

    Updates.....

    Got the condo sale going through (Me... a homeowner)

    StreamJacker 2.10b is done. Just need to re-package it.

    I will have broadband at home (parents) inside of the week.

    Posted by Enki at 08:56 AM | Comments (19) | TrackBack

    July 15, 2003

    How The Mighty Have Fallen...

    I am sitting in a Library (!!!) of all places, updating my blog. I suppose that I could do the job from work, but my bosses tend to look down their noses at the waste of time (especially when they are paying me overtime to patch security holes).


    We have found a place to buy in Langley, and have an accepted offer, but there are still a few hoops to jump through. Hopefully some of our stuff will get recovered after the burglary, but I am not holding out much hope. This means we get to look forward to buying new computer equipment as well as forking out some down payment money.

    Streamjacker is on hold until I get some time to re-install the Python dev environment I need in order to work on it. Sorry folks.

    Posted by Enki at 04:44 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

    July 08, 2003

    Looks Like I am Living In Interesting Times

    Life can be different sometimes.

    The day after my last post, somebody broke into my house, and helped themselves to everything that they thought they needed more than me. They took both of Quoth's computers, all our files, and a large part of our computer equipment. They also stole both my sister, and her boyfriend's systems, and some of all our clothes etc.

    The good news is that our dog, and our bikes were with us on vacation. I also still have the server with all of the software I have written over the last few years backed up (on a slowly failing hard drive).

    So now I have to make a choice...

    I could decide that my life just sucks, that the world is out to get me, and that I should just quit, or perform some large scale misanthropic act of violence.

    But that would be a cop out. Instead, I have decided that this was the kick in the ass I needed to finally start working for a solid future. No more rental quats for me; I am buying a new condo (with a leak proof warranty). I will NOT replace all of the unnecessary consumer crap that I have accumulated. Just me, Quoth, my dog, my bike, and my computer.

    No knick knacks, no designer floor mats, and certainly no cleverly named end tables made from environmentally friendly compressed swedish post consumer waste.

    No eating out at trendy restaurants that have waiters that affect a fake french accent either.

    I am going to hang with friends, eat pizza, and be simply happy.

    Posted by Enki at 09:00 PM | Comments (29) | TrackBack